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BRITAIN'S ONLY MAGAZINE DEVOTED TO THE AMSTRAD CPC 464, 664 AND 6128

No. 14 NOVEMBER 1

ART STUDIO

Full review of this powerful painting package

&ig bouncing Mastergame from Vortex

MAPS GALORE

Dan Dare and Price of Ma gift mapped in full

GAM" v S • PILGRIM • BUMPER CHEAT MODE

ABSOLUTE SEGiMNERS • &GOTJNG UP C

EDUCATIONAL SOFTWARE • NEWS
VIEWS • SPECIAL Of PcRS • AND MUCH MORE

WIN A
GHETTOBLASTER!

Mastertronic
mega- com petition

VOUR M35H1- RETRIEVE FfM3Q 'JOUR COUNTRIES
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Sffiftt STRONGHOLDS -PRHIRIES. CITIES.

$7int INTptNC Q/OOD riQ QQtnCEC mtCQmN iZTpTt *C_

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PRA1RK

CITY

AMSTRAD

C1U.OO
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SCREEN SHOTS FROM
ORIGINAL COIN-OP

DATA EAST

AMSTRAD ACTION NOVEMBER 1986

FRONT END

EDITORIAL • NEWS • LETTERS

5 ED-LINES

Talcs of the Old Barn - the eerie* continues.

6 REACTION

Four pages of your letters, complaints, ideas, poems, news
and views.

1 4 AMSCENE

All the news from the PGW Show recently held in Olympia.

SERIOUS SIDE

REVIEWS • ARTICLES • PROFfLES

21 ABSOLUTE BEGINNERS - Part 7

Baffled by Basic? Then read our easy guide to programming.

24 BOOTING UP CP/M - Part 5

Tha gentle art of housekeeping.

26 PROBLEM ATTIC & HOT TIPS

Your technical problems and ingenious solutions.

29 A DAY IN THE LIFE

We kick off this new series with the inside story of Amstrad
Action itself; how we do U with Amstrads.

31 BACK TO SCHOOL

Arnold tries the mortarboard for size.

34 SERIOUS SOFTWARE SHORTS

Speech, Music Sox and Breakpoint get the Wilton treatment.

36 THE ART STUDIO

Rainbird's powerful art package provides a full palette for
Arnold's artistic poientiaJ.

S'w _-**'

41 BOOK REVIEWS

Two technical books that delve right into Arnold's innards.

ACTION & ADVENTURE

OVER 1 5 GAMES • MAPS • THE PllGRIM

4 3 A CftON TEST STARTS HEME!

Turn to this page for a FULL LIST of the games reviewed in
the next 17 pages - PLUS your Top Ten Chan. These are just
the Raves...

46 DEACTIVATORS

Bomb disposal against the clock in this split-screen Rave.

48 SPLIT PERSONALITIES

Your chance to rearrange soma heads of state.

48 TEMPEST

The still* that Electric Dreams are made of.

50 REVOLUTION

Abstract bounce-eiu-up from Highway specialist Vortex.

67 PILGRIM'S PAGES

The Master of Adventure brings you (he latest and greatest.

72 PRICE OF MAGIK MAP

Four-page map of this mega adventure game.

90 DAN DARE MAP

Devilishly clever map of the Mekon's asteroid.

INTERACTION

THE SECTION CREATED IV AND FOB TO U

19 WE NEED YOU!

How you can get your name m AA - and Serious Software
Charts.

76 CHEAT MODE

FIVE! - YES FtVE PAGES!! Of pokes for your favourite games
this month.

85 TYPE- INS

These programs are free, w> get those typing fingers
tapping.

89 WIN A GHETTO BLASTER!

Or a Sony Walkman, a digital watch or a host of other goodies
with our Masiertronic Super Competition .

92 MAIL-ORDER

Order software from your armchair and save yourself
pounds.

94 SPECIAL OFFERS

Be tempted by huge discounts on lop titles - it's available
only from us]

96 FORMS

All-in-one Action form for your interaction.

Hasn't it been a wonderful summer? If you're talking about the
weather, then you must be joking: the West Country is re-
nowned fa j rain, and it has certainly lived up to its reputation
this lime. The clack of Arnold's keys has usually been accom-
panied by the tap of Somerset rain on the windows.

But at least there has been plenty to write about - and
plenty to offer you if you haven't been able to make it to sunnier
climes this year. Cheat Mode, in particular, has taken off with a
vengeance: five pages of powerful pokes and two magnificent
maps. Not only have we mapped Dan Dare in colour, but also
the whole of The Price ofMsgick in a four-page extravaganza.
That should keep you busy for a While!

On the Serious Side we have the cover story - a three-page
Teview of the powerful Art Studio drawing package - together
with a look at the state of educational software for Arnold,
Absolute Beginners and Booting up CP/M continue to help you
make sense of Basic and the operating system, while Problem
Attic merges with the new Hot Tips section and gets two pages
all to itself,

And you can read all about us too: we have kicked off the
Day in. the Lite series, in which we look at unusual uses for
Amstrads, by looking at the way we produce Amsirad Action,

Aclion Test is packed full as usual, though this month has
been a little scarce for games meriting Afl-Rave status. Master-
game, however, is Revoitition - turn to the middle to find out

more.

And we have a superb competition for you. Those awfully
nice people at Masteitronic are giving away piles of electronic
goodies if you can put your artistic ability and imagination into
gear. Ghetto Blasters, Walkmen and awfully neat digital
watches are up for grabs for the best picture - see page 89 for
more details.

So stop staring at the rain: open up A\fl, turn on Arnold, and
have fun.

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Flit*™ PoiU^ing Limited I BBS

VOICE OF THE PEOPLE

What! - I hear you shout - not favourite jayatck-waster, or

remore Hx-Score but now favourite utility, then lei
KJ2 £ "S?w ' V ° iC t ° f *• *■** - P"*"5riy m l63S than

Soil r?; 2o ° "*»* *"*•«■ *«**

hot, i repeat not. axing it all
together. It's just that we want to
change it,

viewing games, as Voice of die
Peonle stand* mow. wo it'sm ««,*

to actively criticise what we say
in our reviews - or indeed any-
where in the magazine. If you
think Bob got it wrong on your

WHOOPS!

The observant reader will h»*e
noticed a bit of a booboo on our
part in Issue )3 of this esteemed
journal. On page* 38 and 39 D*n
J3ane would appear to have
achieved Akfcaye statu* wiih
an AA Bating of only ?S per
cesa. while Mission Omega fail*
to get on* with a rating of 80 p«*
cent.

The sticker ia in the right
place, be* unfortunately the sw-
ing* boa got transposed by rois-
taka: £>«n £*ar» is, in our view,
the better game of the two. A*
you may have iko nouewd, Toot
is notably absent from these
pages too, so perhaps . „ ?

tribute too.

But we don't just want you
telling us what a load of walliea

VII

to justify your criticisms if you

woah ua iu pujjusiL yatir LI
The address, a? usual, 19 Voice
of the People, Amstirad Action,
Somerton, Somerset, Till
BAM.

Sjf^A

PLUS TWO vs 464

Although the recent Personal
Computer World Show ai
Olympia was dominated by
Alan Sugars new PC, he also
chose this venue 10 launch the
Spectrum Plug 2.

This machine - basically a
ZX Spectrum wish a decent key-
board and built-in cassette
deck, gelling at £149 - would
appear to offer strong compe-
tition to Amstrad's own CPC
464, It is true that the 484 comes
complete with a monochrome
monitor for £199. or £299 with a
colour monitor; but the compe-
tition :s slit! there

The main threat comes from
the huge library of games soft-
ware out there for the Spectrum
range - even now many games
appear in Spectrum incarnation

before the Amsttad versions ap-
pear However, in most other
Ways: the CPC 464 is a bettor
machine: in particular it offers a
faster version of the programm-
ing language Basic (the Spec-
trum is particularly slow here]
and far better graphic and
■colour resolution,

Amstrad assures us thai
production of 464s is still at full
sirengih, and Ihe company does
not intend to drop the machine
But ii is still a potential worry to
464 owners and buyers. We {of
course) will still support the 464,
<md thete is every indication
that the rest of the industry will
too. However we will be moni-
toring the situation carefully and
would, like to hear from anyone
who has trouble buying a 464,

«*!

AMSmSB ACIION NOVEMBER

Thanhs for all your letters again this month: we
actually counted, and there are almost 300. So please

don't be offended if we have room to prmt only o very
small selection. You'll understand that we can't reply
individually and still have time to put out a magazine!

A few points to bear in mind when writing: Keep
your letter to the point - the best are brief. If you have
bits for different departments {subscriptions, mail-
order, the Pilgrim, Type-Ins, Re-action etc) pul them on
separate sheets of paper, each headed with your name
and address and possibly even the date and your
phone number (but one envelope will do).

Keep 'em taming!

Author! Author!

The computer-games; industry
as a whole gives loo much hype
to games thai haven't been re-
leased, and when they arc they
axe often not worth paying even
50p.

Also loo much attention is
paid to the games or software
and a blind eye is turned to
their authors, People know only
ace programmers Jon Hitman,
Bemie Drummond and Paul
Shirley for their games: Batman.
Confuzion, Spindizsy. Program-
mers should be credited.
Games could have the name of
Ihe authors at the top. so the
buyer can expect good quality
if that programmer has in the
past produced good software. I
waa wondering if you could do
something about this in your
magwane. Who wrote last
month's mastergame, Starstrike
Blot instance?

[ have owned my 494 for
almost two years and have deci-
ded to gel a 6123 but cannot
part with my old Arnold, Can
you please tell me if a 61 £8 can
be bought separately without
any Type Of monitor, if so for
how much, and can it be
plugged into my CTM 640
colour monitor?

1 would also like to hear
from penpals or people wishing
to buy software originals. Are
there any user clubs in the Wor-
cestershire area?
Mam ood Saltan
109 Cranium Drive
Warn dan, Worcester
WR4 9PQ

Last month's maatcrganw was
by a team of programmers at
Realtime Games* and corporate
rather than individual effort is
the rule rathor than the excep-
tion nowadays,

As for buying a 61B8 with-
out a monitor, it's a question of
striking a deal with an indiv-
idual shopkeeper. But the 6128
needs an additional 12-voIt
supply for the disk, so it can t
just be plugged into your CTM
monitor.

Wade's day's made

Shouldn't I get a prize? I am the
only AA reader in the Dolgellau
area. My copy is ordered for
me every month at Siop-y-
Cymro (the 'Welshman's Shop').
The area covers three or four
main towns with populations
over g,00€. In Merioneth county
[ know of only two other
Amslrad users, but they don't
get AA. Don't fear, I'll stick with
you so long as Mr Bob Wade
slays on the team - he must
probably be the most experien-
ced reviewer in the UK; I rarely
disagree with his opinions.
Bryan John Parry
Dolgellau, Gwynedd

Diolch am eich Uythyr, loan!

Bog of literature

] am an ex-proud owner of a
CPC 464 - by which 1 mean that]
am now only an owner of a 464.
During the two years I owned
the Spectrum 1 was literally
flooded with alt sorts ol mail
such as software catalogues and
new-product leaflets from Sin-
clair Research, all of which I
found interesting, Since obtain-
ing my 464, however, I have
received only one letter from
Amstrad and that Was only to try
to lure me into joining their user
group. This may be a trivial
point, you may think, but it
merely illustrates to me that
Amslrad is only interested in
making big profits.

Olher examples of this mer-
cenary attitude include the 664
saga and Amstrad 'a refusal to
allow third-party production of
the QL after acquiring Sinclair,
while not producing it them-
selves. Alan Saccharine might
be a more suitable name, as I
definitely detect a sour
aftertaste.

Ron an McKfin.ua
Kelts, Co. Meoth, Eire

You might try sending your ad-
dress to Readers Digest and tho
other AA (as in oars) if you like
being literally (literally)
flooded. Sinclair support was
more necessary because the
products were less reliable - if
promises over materialised and
wares ever turned up.

A A stars

I am writing to fell you how
appalled 1 am that games like V
and Johnny Feb are even al*
lowed to be put on the market,
let alone to be sold m almost
nine pounds- Most full -whack
computer games are absolute
rubbish and a complete rip* off.
Something has to be done about
this. Even though you do great
reviews you soil can't review
every single one. Those you do
review are pretty well checked
out, though sometimes a month
or so loo late or not given
enough space.

Why not, instead of just re-
viewing them, approve them?
What I mean is teal the games,

then on the box bo me where put
an 'AA- Approved' sticker. If
you did this it would save a lot
of people like me who can't
afford to fork out 10 quid on
rubbish, and make software
houses like Ocean think twice
about making such drivel-
Chxi stop her MakriftsOn
Ley land, Lanes

It's up to the software houses.
Wo don t let them sell us what to
say in AA, L could we tell them
what to print on thoir packs?

Give us a tiff

I'd like to bring to the attention
of your readers an often
overlooked, yet vital and excit-
ing element that can make or
break a game: lifts. Scoff if you
like, but think about this: where
would we be without the old
elevators? Ground floor, T
suspect.

Games generally have one
of two types of lifts: small ones
or Large ones. In the former
category J could cite Ihe cs
capades of WilJy, GUligan,
Chuckie. jack of the Jet Boots,
Mario and many more. Who
could ever forge l that scene in
Chuckle Egg where our hapless
hero plunges to certain doom
only to be scooped at Ihe last
possible minute? Thrilling stuff.
In his adventure in space that
lovable working-class-kid-

come-good Willy encountered
quite a few lifts. When asked
about ihcm he joked, 'I'd of
never of got up there without
thorn," Ha, ha!

Anyway I'm going off at a
tangent hare.

The other category is large
lifts, or "big ones', as they arc
often referred to, This breed
has appeared in classics like
Impossible Mission, Pyjama-
ratna (complete with a dart),
Bocky Horror Show, Thing on a
Spring - 1 could go on - 1 will go
on - Marspon, Gromphey. Spa-

6 AMSTRAD ACTION NOVEMBER 1986 a

nimjure.

RE-ACTION

Some do ask us if they can
icprir.t an AA Save' symbol ait
their package, or a rich phrase
from Bob Wade's prose. &u t you
can't expect them to stamp
World Cup Carnival, tor in-
stance. 'AA rating: 0%\

So it's up to you to part with
a pound,, buy the mag and read

p^re Apt thet ? "

llbound, ... Many of these have
radical new features, for in-
stance the Springy Thing:)
elevator has a Sticky substance

on the Boor whicii makes it im-
possible for you lo move when
il is motion, In Pyjamarama and
Spellbound you don't even get
to see the lift moving: - incred-
ible but true.

«z* CfM!p^ifi& T^fr compeer
o* jeers . . , "

efte review before forking- out

any tenners.

Body- building
Arnold

Has anybody at DK'Tronics or
some other third-party supplier
thought of bringing out a second
processor or sideways ROMS
for the dear old Arnold? Seem-
ingly the Amsitad has the caps-
bilsty 10 handle both.

Why don't you copy your
rival mag and bring out
sweatshirts and t shirts with
your logo on the front?
Steven Allan
Edinburgh

There axe plenty of sideways
ROMs on the market: see July,
p26-28- Nobody has produced a
second processor, and we can t
see there being much demand
for one. U yon want a more
powerful machine, Amstrad
would say. here is Our PC.

Maybe we could also think
of bringing outs roadmap with
our logo.

Mega-moan

Whenever you see an advert for
a piece of software (eg Ocean)

you see underneath 'Amstrad
£3.85, Spectrum £7.95'. Why is it

Lifts should no longer be
neglected or sneered at - they
play a significant role an our
joystick-pushing hours - lei's
hear it for them! Yes!

Liateai, why don't you start a.
Lift-ol-the-month fealurette in
which readers could nominate

must be the supurb one an Mai-
sport a true masterpiece

WOW,
Alex Duck
Cheadle. Cheshire

Listen, Alex. This is one twig, up
at the top of the tree of knowled-
ge, yet to be elevated into a PhD
thesis. You're obviously a
candidate for liigher education.
Rise to the challenge!

that Spectrum, owners can get
most software a pound or two
cheaper that), we can? It's not
fair!

When are you going to give
away another cover cassette-? I
thought The Covenant was fan-
tastic and worth more than SOp.
Neii Selwyn
West Lulworth. Dorset

We asked Ian. Stewart, manag-
ing director of Gremlin, which
advertises Commodore soft-
ware at £7, Spectrum £9 and
Amstrad £10 (with Sp change).
The Amstrad game costs more
'"cos it's better: there's music,
a/td the graphic* took longer to
work on than than the
Spectrum '$. Within a short time
the Spectrum programs will be
the same price; with the ad-
vances in Spectrum coding they
will take up the same pro-
gramming time. There has de-
finitely been a quality differ-
ence. Because of its general
handling you can produce a bet-
ter product on the Amstrad,
•mthout doubt. "

The official answer from "a
spokesman" at Ocean is the
extra cost of converting a prog
tor the Amstrad most was hrst
written on the Spectrum or
Commodoro. Second, there
aren 't as many Amstrad o wners,
so economy of scale applies.

Snails vs hares

[ find it impossible not to be
slightly frustrated and annoyed
when every month 1 go to any
bookshop and see Amstrad Ac-
tion up on the shell, while I
know my copy is still 'on its
way'. To make matters ironic,
the July issue came by post
several days before il arrived in
the bookshops, and yet t
find AA apologising for a
delay! What are the exact
procedures for subscription?
Joseph Doyle
Waterford City, Eire

A von Direct Mail (the contractor
we use) posts out subscription

copies on the l&st Friday of
every month. Newsstands usu-
ally get theirs (via other chan-
nels) the Following Thursday.
However we will look into your
case.

Really! Number 1 J

1 have got two, yes two. copies

of AA issues 1 and 3. If anyone

wants to buy either of them,

state your bid.

Robert Heater

62 Roseneath Ave Due

Leicester, LE4 7GT

You 're lucky to possess the rare
AA 1, but we have plenty of
number 3 for sale here at the
Old Bam,

Hi-score non-halku

Hear ye my tale of woe:

I went down to my local store
to buy a game to play.
1 went straight to the counter
and asked for Creejr Beret.

I think the game is really great;
I'll play it evermore.
And one of m y ambitions was
lo get in your "Hi-Score 1 ,

At first 1 didn't do so well
but now I'm getting better.
But now I'm so frustrated,
which is why I write this letter.

I'd just achieved 69,000 (enough

to fame your table)

bo 1 was. about to send it.

excitement in the air.

[ opened up issue 12

and found it wasn't there!

Well, that was it; t hit the roof;
I thought. 'It can't be true!'

1 said lo myself, fuming mad,

'AA, how could youl"

I suppose you think it funny,
the way you pull your tucks.
Well, if you do it one more time
I'm subscribing to [some orhet
mag- ed.].

(I'm not, rosily ! But bring back

Hi-Score!)

S. Hobaa (age 11)

Gars wood, nr Wigan

'£

b.A.kttriw AMSTRAD ACTION NOVEMBER 1988 7

RE-ACTION

An evergreen
reader

Please could we have a little
less exhortation to 'drool* over
our software? H k s teTiibly bad
for tht? disks, apart from any-
thing else.

And don't assume all your
readers are younger than you
when you write. I finally gave
gp on your rivals when they
included in * questionnaire.
'How much pocket-money do
you get? How much Pepsi do
you drink?" They also advertise
t-Khirta modelled on someone
who didn't look a day over
eight. This can alienate the
more 'senior' games pUyeis
such as myself - if late 20s can
be described as 'senior"

A suggestion: How about a
tow retrospective re-reviews?
For example, you could briefly
sum up what you now consider
to be the best sports simulation
or the beat beat-em-up. You
could give a much better as-
sessment of 'staying power':
how many tunes did you really
reload the game alter the Hist
couple of weeks? A previous
correspondent suggested his
favourite 'evergreen' was Star
Avenger. My own candidale
would also be a Kami product;
Fruity Frank. I always reload it
with pleasure and seem to find
some new lactic in it every time.

You told D Hemiwjton in
your September issue that it was
tricky to boot a. program from
disk using the |CPM command.
Unless I'm missing something,
all you have to do is use the
'Setup* command which the
manual explains unusually
clearly, typo the name of your
command program (followed
by *M) into the "initial command
buffer', and then answer yes to
all the other questions.
Pan! Murphy
London N19

"Drool' w*s an Arsdersontsm- He
now works upstairs, which
might explain why it's damp
down here.

Sir, we strenuously avoid
witting down to our readers.
We know a good many parents
and pensioners Ate numbered
among them.

IT new products remind us
oi oldies (goldies or otherwise)
that's when reviewers re-
mention them. There are vari-
ous office favourites, depending
OB personalities: Andy and Bob
like Thrust,' Jane Farmer and Di
are wont to load up Wriggler or
Sorcery Plus; Trevor chooses
ShogLn: Matt particularly goes
lor two player games such as
Harvey Keadbangor ,

As for Seiup. you could in-
deed under CP/M 2.2 do as you

suggest CPfM Pius doesn't
have this utility, and you use the
Submit method as outlined to Mr

Harrington,

Mum's not knitting

I 'i(u .i i " will. 1lni.:.'- young

children, and we recently pur-
chased a 464. 1 never thought
that I would become so interes-
ted it what ii can do. (Whal s the
saying about never being loo
old?) 1 want to thank you for
such an excellent magazine.
This is no flannel: being so new
to compuiing f bought them all
and 1 found yours the best value
for money and the most interest-
ing, Better than knitting patterns
ar.y day!
Lynda Gunn
Hockley, Essex

Two in 4 row. The latter ed'r
fails to think of a witty remark
about evergreen needles.

* &ej<i> nt^e £**t op piAtto

Impossibly long

How long do 1 have !o wait to get
Impossible Mission by US G old?
I have been waiting eight
months: I subscribed in Decem-
ber and ordered n as one of the
two free games.

MC Bover
Shcnficid, Essex

US Gold tells as the game is now
to be released at the end of
September, and we reviewed it
in our October issue. In April
AA sent waiting subscribers the
other free game and a letter
offering US Gold's Winter
Games or other alternatives.

Julie's indexed us

I have produced a list ot all the
games reviewed in Amstrad Ac-
tion {except those in Amsyclo-

pedia) on my word-processor
updated every month as soon as

I get my copy of AA, Entries are
in alphabetical order, with soft-
ware company, price of tape
and disc, joystick or keys, AA
rating and which snag it's in.

Readers cart buy copies for
90p. Enclose an sae and say
which CPC you have, so 1 can
nuss out games which aren't
compatible with your computer
(or you can have have a com-
plete list if you warn). It's nai
worth dotng a list just for PGWs.
There is also an Amsyclcpedia
list, which also costs 50p.
Julie Gilg
9 Sylvan Avenue
Exeter
EX4 6ES

This .tUovrs as to cfet in a plug
for back issues covered in your
very efficient-sounding index,
Julie, The Old Barn is our of
number? L2, 6 and 7. but other-
wise all can be ordered for
£1,3$ including post and pac-
king. Number 8 with the PSS
cassette costs £1.65,

Vive ! 1 Arnold!

It does not exist a good French
mag like yours. I know in Paris
only one shop which sells AA
and ii takes me each month
more than one hour to go and
buy it (with an increased price
of 130%).

So. I've thought about a sub-
scription. But I do hernials. I've
read in a French mag thai some
people had problems with fore-
ign (UK!) subscriptions.
Perez Thierry
149 rue Oberkampf
75011 Paris

Subscriptions (pas de pre-
bleme, Peres) posted lo Europe
cost £22.50 for douse issues,
plus your choix of free joystick,
dustcovsr or Thingi.

Elite bafflement

In the August issue Reaction,
Problem Attic and Cheat Mode
all had bus on Elite. I was wor-
ried, annoyed and baffled after
reading your reply io a few
niggles' from Phillip Miller. You
said there was a bug in the

c.isaetle version. I received my

Elite from you in spring when I

subscribed. Is mine a dud or

OK?

Simon Hewlett

York

tf the word 'Metropolitan' is
printed on your cassette, it's the
bag-tree version. If not, send it
direct to Firebird - not to its -
for it to be replaced.

" I THlj^ IT W&& TW£

Brand X

They gel 40%. you gel 94%
overall. AA might make master -
mag. but then who would get
the raves? Can't wail for the
next issue.
Jonathan Hurst
Wiadlesham, Surrey

Yob should see Bob smiling.
Thanks. Jonathan.

8 NOVEMBER 1986 AMSTRAD ACTION i* a parce i

Without music, graphics

and sound the Board

Game has become the

most popular in the

world.
Now it has them.

"Over 3,000 questions of no vital importance."

■*■ M.

Available now on
Spectrum 4&123K Commodore G4/128K
BBC B' Amstrad CPC

Cassette and Disk

<J^

ictwittomm

and all local stockists

HOR N ABBOT

• KMATMINAI

t ■■> w mrrii mm nwu

TRIVIAL PURSUIT!* j Trade Mark owned and liccn&cd bj rtttffl rVbbai tmffnalM.mil 1 id

Published b> Damaik I.imiicd.XM Wcupfc Read, 1 .otidon SW2Q 8PM Tel; 01 W7 562 1
Trivial PurMiti mi pco^r jnimcd by Oxford Hifiiij! Fiiftrpr*K*.

DOMARK

TRACKER by Union Software

A totafly new concept in computer
war games uiifrsing artificial intelligence
Versions will differ substantially to make full use Of
machine capability. Controlling up to 8 remote
skimmers you must wipe out renegade intelligent
forces across 5000 trades One to one conitwt is
featured m fast 3D

STARGLfDER by Argonaut Software

A true arcade quality BO combat flight ymuJator at
the first order A high action product with novefld
and postei included, Featuring stunning graphics.
realistic sound effects and true 3-D perspective,

ADVENTURES by Level 9

JEWELS. OF DARKNESS-A premier collection of

classic advenujre

SILICON DREAMS A modem space adventure.

Tbpse sizeable adventurer dfe in three parts and
represent excellent value for money, bach contain
over 600 graphic locations and feature trie latent
Level 9 text handling system aiming rrrulti command
sentences, help and oops. LeveJ 9 die undisputed
tedders in cassette based adventure and are
renowned for their intriguing pfots and puzzles.

■ ■■ m > ..

i fa*

•\

Bringing sof twar

THfc ART ST LOQ

ADVANCFD ART STUDJO

THE MUSIC SrSTFM

ADVANCED MUSIC SYSfEM

VTARGLIDER

TRACKFR

THE PAWN

JEWELS Of DARKNESS

SILICON DREAMS

SPECTJftJM STCCTfltJM C/DORE C/DORF t/UORE AMSTRAD AMSTRAD AWS r «

48/ 126

rAH

OCP

14 95

oc n

.v.rrw & ISLAND

SYSTEM & ISLAND

—

^GONAUl

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.FTWARE

MAGNtfiC SCROLLS

l±V6L9

14 95

LEVEL V

64/IZB

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H 95 17-95

19 95 17 r / r ,

14 95 14 95

14 95 19 95

VFRSIONS MAY VARY FROM DESCRIPTIONS ABOVF

'.* fi tSr'-

THE PAWN by Magnetic Scrolls

The most talked about adventure of the

year! Containing the most sophisticated

language interpreter t ind text-handling system ever

seen in an adventure together with 30 picturesque

illustrations and unique scrolling screens. Gdme

includes noveila and poster.

THE ART STUDIO AND

ADVANCED ART STUDIO by O.C.P.

The leading art and design package renowned for its

ease of use and comprehensive list of features. The

Advanced Art Studio is designed to stretch the

Irmirarinn.s of individual machines and Incorporates a

low resolution mode on Amstrad and Commodore,

M ei r iu M j nd upgrade offprs included. Printers

supported using grey scale.

THE MUSIC SYSTEM AND ADVANCED

MUSIC SYSTEM by System Software

The best music programs for Commodore and

Amstrad. Ihe Music Sysrem features Keyboard, Editor

and Synthesiser, and Advanced Music System has

additional Printer and Linker (continuous linking of

music files} modules, Commodore Advanced version

also has a comprehensive MIDI module. Utilising

WIMP technology with comprehensive manuaj and

upgrade offers where applicable.

AMSTRADI ATARI ATARI ATARI

PCW BOO/ 1 10 800/130

DBR TAPE OrSK DISK

APPLC
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14 95 14 95 39 95 1*95

21 9b Z* 95

VERSIONS MARKED D ARL UNDCT? Dr.Vn.OPMrNT

Alt products available from

RAINBIRD SOFTWARE

1$t Floor 64-76 New Oxford SL

London WCl IPS

Make cheques/postal orders

IntemationaJ money orders payable to

Rain bird Software and post to the

above address,

ACCESS/VISA - telephone 01 240 B837

RAIN0/RD SOHWAfiE IS A DMSfON OF
BR.TISH T £LECOWIvlUN(CAIO^ PLC.
OCTOBER 1986 ^

DIGITAL

INTEGRATION

SI ONI

RE- ACTION

Biggies megagame,
megaiine reminder

If you buy Rig-gleg (disc) you gat
a totally free megagame. Well,
that's what the very sriiooth-
scrolling message told me any-
way. If you type Run "tunnie"
you will see for yourself.

When my subscription
ends will I be notified? I can't
remember which issue I sub-
scribed from, and I wouldn't
like to misg an issue of my
favourite magazine.
Andrew Soar
Diss, Norfolk

We've seen Biggies only on
cassette, so tanff Mirrorsoft to
Check your tip, Andrew. All hell
broke loose. Turned out an
■adolescent spoofer' working
lor their firm of duplicators
sneaked the so-called ir^j-
game onto copies ofS&i Combai
as Well - a See-what-f-wrote bit
of arcade action,

H won't happen again.
(Pause for dust to settle.) Bat
don't be sad; 'it wasn't good
enough for anyone to be disap-
pointed.' said Mirrorsoft 's Pat
Bitten. The lad concerned will
have to read the next letter.

As for your sob, yes: yon
get a reminder letter with your
second-fiom-last issue. How. it
you buy a binder (£3*95, advt)
you always know how many of
the 12 spaces are left, In your
case, subscriber number 2B59 (I
looked you up), Feb will be
your final. $0 this 19 an Extra
Reminder and you will have No
Excuse.

Entrepreneur

Over (he la&i few months I have
noticed thai some of the games
you review have been written
and sold by tha same person. 1
have written a few games using
Laset Basic and Compiler and
want to sell ihGrn myself, but my
mother says that you have to be
licensed Or something. Is this
true? If so could you tell me
what to do about it - and don't
say, 'Send them to a software
house to be published/ because
1 don't want to.

By tho way,, 1 have ju3t fed
my cats with US Gold's World
Cup Carnival* it was so bad! I
bought it a few days before

youi warning came out. What a
load of rubbish! The original
isn't much good either.
Justin Mason
Shank lin, Isle of Wight

You don't have to have a lic-
ense, Justin, but you won't make
any money out of it. Selling mail'
order from home opens you up
to a)i sorts of hassles, especially
nasty people wanting their
money back. It just doesn't
seem possible anymore to
break into tho software market
on a shoestring budget: the big
houses, with th&iz massive ad-
vertising budgets, have such a
stranglehold on the market.
Your best bet might be to try
contacting some of the small
user-groups magazines (see last
month's Reaction). Perhaps we
should do an article on this topic
in a future issue.

fl I'm Ppc&R.*tfSMirf& H"
TO PP^VJ tAproot4S F»P-

Buy, by Mr Muff

Its Andrew Duff here! That's
Duff and not Putt, as seen in
issue 11. Please print my name
correctly if, buy a

9.97561338 * IQSSio 1 chance. ii
is published^

In your mail-order system,
can you order games from ear-
lier issues than the present one?
Andrew Dull
Tain, Ross-shire

Enough. Mr Xuff, don 't get in a
huff and we won't talk rough
about handwriting.

Of the stuff we re offered,
all but lour are shl! in stock or.
cun be obtained {allow a bit oi
extra time) from our suppliers.
As for Mexico 36* Big-League
Soccer. Ales Higgins World
Pool And AH Snooker - tough.

VHP **?** R?fl IWe i<j«4* FpO^
***tTrI|fK> Of- f*i I^MCVATION '

What moan?

Please could you tell me just
one thing: what is it that wc 664
owners are supposed to be
moaning about? Is it because the

computer has been withdrawn
or because the 6123 was
brought out after (he G64? In fact
wo ale not moaning. Perhaps
464 owners will put their brains
into gear before they open their
mouths.
AC Smith
Sunderland

As j Smeets of Venlo (Neth-
erlands) wrote in May: 'Would
that moaning moanies moaning

about the moaning nxoanics that
moan about their G64, please
stop moaning! '

Arnold and the 8256 is Joyce,
Simon Donne
Newbury, Berks

Call it what you like; it can'/
hcai you.

But seriously though, all the
CPC machines (464, SS4 and
6129) are nicknamed Arnold.
Don't worry about why: f
wouldn't want to burden you
with the story of some prat back
in the mists of time who did an
anagram on Roland Perry, the
man most responsible for devel-
oping the CPC range. Even
more boring: Joyce was Alan
Sugar 's Secretary.

Do not ask what CPC stands
for. Colour personal computet?
Possibly, but ii doesn t stand for
anything unpleasant in any lan-
guage we could think of. Wo
have no theory about the initial
'&' in&138.

Call me anything but
not too late for lunch

I'd like to know what my CPC
6128 is called, if the 464 is

F THAT4 t*?T r**f paw^ -T(4£
Tneip AWftTp.*!? . '

Trans-temporal

The July issue says Disc SO is
tested on page 66. but my copy
has the end of the Toadruimer
review and Jtock'n wrestle. In
the September issue, one of the
leter* mentions your review of
Disc SO, so it appears that some
got it and some didn't. I am
tempted to buy the program as
n seems very good value for
money. Could you please lot me
have a copy of the Action Teat to
help make up my mind?
K Wilson
Anglesey

Through a timewarp the review
landed or. page 62 of the August
issue. Fez a quid (plus 35p for
stamps etc) we can post you a
back copy. That'll leach you to
miss a month of the mega-magt

a*.™* AMSTEAD ACTION NOVEMBER 1986 13

Real Amstrad action
at the PCW Show

The first wook of September
saw Be nam's largest computer
show of the year - the 9th Per-
sonal Computer World Show. In
the spacious but hot halls of
Olympia lit London, we at
Amstrad Action had a ring-side
seat: for the first time we were
exhibitors as well as attenders.

The reason for our modes!
stand, on the upper gallery
above mo massive pavilions of
Amatrad and Sinclair, was the
launch of our new titles - 3000
Plus and PC Plus, monthly
magazines devoted to the
Amatrad PCW and PC ranges
respectively.

Our liming, fortunately, was
perfect. On the Amstrad aland
visitors were seeing the new

PC 131 2 for the first lime. In PC
Plus they could rend the full
details from the press launch die
day before.

It was hot-deadline action
like a daily newspaper. Two
pages of PC Pius had been held
open foT Man's report from (he
launch. Matt phoned details to
Chris down at the Old Bam: a
motorbike raced to the printer
with photos; presses ran
enough copies overnight to sat-
isfy demand for the rest of the
show. It was hectic but wo made
it in the end!

Also on sale was last
month's issue of Amstrad Ac-
tion, with the seven-page spec-
ial feature on music, 'Wired for
Sound'. By coincidence^ we

happened to be next-door to
EMK - producers of the Mid-
itrack Performer package re-
viewed in that issue - and were
treated to the full blast of the
package's power every second
of the day. It was certainly a
Crowd-puller, but at times we
wouldn't have minded the more
peaceful tones of a quiet game
of Space In vadoiis.

The star Df the show was
Amatrad with the new PC.
Amstrad s stand was usually
more crowded than a student-
union bar. Atari made a good
effort with the 'Atari Village',
and the Sinclair stand showed
the new Spectrum -2. With
games houses showing their
wares, the odd robot accosting
the unwary and the sun blazing
down through the glass roof, it
was a ha f occasion in every
sense of the word.

*K;

GAMES GALORE

As might have been expected,
there were no shortage of new
games on display at the Shew
-and some Impressive stands
from the bigger companies
toe. It was guite easy to wan-
der around trying your hand
at any of the thousands of
titles en show, bat not so easy
to son out the new launches
for the Amstrad from the

vSuJL

Ocean released its
schedule for the real of the year,
kicking off by announcing the
imminent arrival of Mlsjtu Viet
at a price of ££.35, As its name
implies this is the official game
of the popular TV series, in
which you guide Crockett and
Tubbs undercover in the build
up to the big bust. It is styled as
an 'arcade adventure 1 , and we
look forward to reviewing it
soon. Also licensed from (he
film lor release this month is
Highlander at £8.95. Coming in
November is Cobra, at the same
price and based on you
guessed it - Stallone's latest
b(*at-envup; and December
should see the release of Shoxi
CiicuH, based on the Si/Hi
movie of the same name.

Moving over to Imagine
sees the release this month of
Ga/van, based on the arcade
game, and Kommi's Golf, both
at a price of £8.96. October sees
the release of Mag M**, Fie At
Kung Fu U snd Terra Cs&aut t ail
based on arcade classics and all
priced at £8,95, To round off this
arcade game month Imagine
should be releasing Kon&ml's
Coin-Op Mite, a compilation of

v >

Spectrum -t-2
revealed

Much as it tears at the heart to
mention a rival computer, Sin-
clair is now part of the Amstrad
corporation and the new Sin-
clair machine, the ZX Spectrum
4 2, could be a direct competi-
tor to the Amstrad CPC464. So
here goes,,

The Spectrum - 1 is; the first
new Sinclair product to emerge
since Amslrad's takeover: the
new ownership shows. The new
machine is basically the old
Spectrum 128K Plus with a dec-
ent keyboard, a built-in data
recorder and two joystick ports.
It is compatible with most of the
older Spectrum add-ons. appa-
rently to the extent of still not
taking standard joysticks.

It is priced at £149, which is
£30 less than the older Spectrum
Plus. It will probably do well if

only because of the huge range
of games available for the Sin-
clair machines. It is an unfortu-
nate fact of life thai., even now,
many games are released
quicker and cheaper for the
Spectrum than for the Arnold -
as your letters frequently point
Out

II has to be seen as compe-
tition for the CPC464 on price
alone. Amstrad is quick to point
out that the 464 comes with a
monitor as well, but it is £50
dearer with a mono serein. *nd
£150 more with the colour
screen.

Amstrad has said there are
no plans to discontinue the 464.
and that it is still selling well.

The good news is thai,
aside from the huge software
library, the Arnold is a better
computer all round. Graphic re-
solution of the Arnold is
640 "200 in two colours,
320*200 in [our colours, or

160 * 200 in 16 colours. The
Spectrum can offer a pixel reso-
lution of £56 * 132 with eight
colours, but suffers from an un-
fortunate disease known as
"attribute clash 1 . This means that
any eigbt-by-eight pure) grid
can contain only two colours,
which severely limits, the colour
graphic capability, and makes
Spectrum games look much less
vibrant chart those for Arnold.

The other serious limitation
of the Spectrum is its Basic:
slow, limited and non-standard.
Locomotive Basic, on the
other hand, is acknow-
ledged to be one of
the best around and
almost as fast as mat
of Acorn's BBC
range.

We will
monitor the
effect of
this

machine on the Arnold
closely over Ihe next months
and if any of you hear of any
problems with software or hard-
ware availability, let US know.

14 AMSTRAD ACTION NOVEMBER 1986 w.^ P .e, M ...

AMSCENE

their best-selling versions
arcade classics- And finally. De-
cember sees the launch of that
classic Donkey Kong - the off-
icial version for the Amsbrad-

Qn the CM. stand you
could see snippets Of new re-
leases from the company -
though you had so stand well
back as they were being shown,
an a bank Of 20 TV screens.
Denis Ex Ma^hina was being
previewed* an unusual 'multi-
media" experience that comes
complete with accompanying
tape featuring the voices and
music of many well-known stars.

Archers on cloud 9

The Level & stand at the PCW
Show was a little different this
time round, as it was the
company's fifth birthday. By
way of celebration the stand had
been turned into a kind of
museum of computer history.
Computer veterans could de-
light at the sight of a Nascom.
while the res! of us took in the
power of the Amiga,

But it wasn't all blasts from
the past. Mosaic Publishing re-
vealed The Archers, written by
Level 9, which is an adventure
based on the perennial radio
serial of the same name. In the
game you lake the part of the
Archers' story editor, making
the plot decisions for Eddie
Grundy, Jack Woolley, Nelson
Gabriel and Elisabeth Archer.
(What do you mean, you've
never heard of them?) As the
plot unfolds you have (o face the
consequences - which appa

Also due for release, this time
on Halloween. October 31st, is
the lex! adventure Dracuta.
Based on the book by Bram
Stoker H wa* written by Rod
Pike, author of Pilgrim. It will
cost £7.35 on cassette,

On thq Marleen stand
could be seen Uctii Mat*. a, judo
simulation written with Hie help
of Brian Jack* - a 7th Dm expert
who has won the British Cham-
pionship 1 1 time* and holds an
Olympic medal in throwing
people on rubber mats The
game offers one or two player
options and costs £9.93 on cass-
ette and £13 $5 on disk.

On the Rainbisd stand,
aside from the excellent Music
System and Advanced Music Sy-
stem, reviewed in our October
issue, and Arr Studio, the cover
story for this issue; one could
gase at the stunning graphics of
S'.arghdei from Argonaut Soft-
ware lor the Atari ST. The good
news is that this is under devel-
opment for the Amattad CPC
range on both cassette and disk,
and looks worth waiting for.

Gremlin Graphics was
previewing its Christinas range,
starting with Footballer of the
rear. This is not jus! another
soccer simulation (or sO they
Claim!), but sees you starting off
at the age of 17 in a Fourth
Division Team with £300 and tan
goal cards in your pocket, and
the footballing world at your
feat. The aim is to develop your
career until you become Foot-

rently include memos from the
controller of Radio 4. The text
was written by members of the
Archers seriptw riling team, so
should have the full flavour of
the original.

Looking to the future, Level
9 is working On a mult -user
dungeon which runs on networ-
ked Amigas; users access it via
modem- Codenamed 'Avaion" it
could be on-line sometime early
next year - and should be well
worth logging onto.

bailer of the Year- It lb schedu-
led for September release at
£9,93.

Due early November is
Tr& iifria xer, in which you play
what appears to be z football.
The best description is possibly
an 'action roll-around'. Follow-
ing this comes future Knight, a
futuristic twenty-level action
game Set in the ruins of a
wrecked star cruiser. At the
same time Avenger is schedu-

led, for release, an arcade ad-
venture following in the Way of
the Tigier series.

£60 Music Machine
has sound sampling

One stand at the Oiympia show
making almost as much noise as
that of EMR was Ram
Electronics. This might have
had something to do with the
fact that Ram was showing a
product in direct competition
with EMR's Miditrzdc

Performer.

Ram's £60 Music Machine is
a Midi-based music system that
comes complete with interface,
software on cassette ox disk,
and even a microphone (though
the price for the Amstrad ver-
sion had not been set at the
tune).

The microphone is in-
cluded because Music Machine
offers 'sound sampling', a tech-
nique whereby natural sounds
can be recorded digitally and
Subsequently manipulated by
the software.

The package also offers
eight built-ui sounds including

drums and piano, and a drum
section with real sounds and a
rhythm editor. The Midi inter-
face allows you to control fully-
fledged Midi synthesisers. And
an earphone socket lets you lis-
ten to the results in the privacy
of your own head.

Further details from Ram
Electronics on (0252) SS 003).
We hope to review one soon!

AND THE NEXT
SHOW

If you haven't already had
enough of computer shows,
the next one is scheduled for
October 3rd to 5th al the
Novotel, Hammer smith,

London.

This show is dedicated to
Amstrad owner*, with mote
thaa 75 exhibitors to peruse
and annoy. The organisers are
predicting a turn-out ■
around J 5.000 enthusiasts -
and we will certainty he
among them.

ofifHiu-nuwuifteiiu* AMSTRAD ACTION NOVEMBER 1986 IS

AMSCENE

nosntc

PUBUSHIHG
LTD

187 Upper Street

IsJington
London M 1RQ
Tel: 01 -226 0838

THRILLER

Thriller writer Dick Francis is
soon to join Frederick Forsyth
on the computer screen with

Screen vision

In between your nightly sei-
stone of game-playing, it may
have occassional occurred to
you that it might be nice to be
able lo watch your favourite TV
programme on Arnold's moni-
tor. WeU - now you can, thanks
lo Sereenvisian from Screens
Microcomputer Distribution'

Mowc Publuhing'i TWeeShy-
77i» Computet Game A tra-
ditional «,dventure game com
bined with ■ hone-racing simul-
ation (I gueas you're just got to
read the book!), Ttoic* Shy has
been written by the Ramjam
Gorporarioii-

You take the pert of teacher
Jonathan Deny who haa come
into possesion of some inarigv-
itig computer tape* - your job is
to find out whet they do and get
them back to She owner. Need
leea to aay (here are a host of
shady characters from the
seamy side of the horse- racing
business trying to stop you. If
you cart make your way to (he
horse track you can place your
bets and watch the race. If you
win you return to the adventure
with some much-needed cash in
your pocket. This part of the
game can be played by itself if
yon went to practice.

Twice Shy will be available
on cassette for £9,96. A disk
version will follow si £12.8&.

Sereentisien is a slimline
box thai you plug your monitor
into, and contains all the circui-
try necessary to bring Dallas to
an Arnold near you. It costs
£89-93, so it might be easier lo
buy a second-hand telly, but for
further details contact Screens
on (061274) 20664.

DAN DARE
PROBLEMS

A little note arrived on our desk
from those nice people at Virgin
Games. For (hose of you who

haven't ilready worked if out.

loading Dan Dare from disk re-
quires iCPM and not
RtJN"DISC, as displayed on the
packet. Thanks, Virgin?

NOT PURE FICTION

This may seem an odd place to
find art item about the 48th
Worid Science Fiction Canve-n-
tfon, but there ia a special re-
ason. The organisers of Conspi-
racy '07. to give its more man-
ageable title, have asked us to
point out that computers will
feature quite heavily this time,
as there will be a whole suite of
rooms at the Metropole given
over to them.

The rooms will contain a
number of hardware and soft-
ware houses stands, together
with lectures, discussions and
workshops on the relationship
between the two fields. Compe-
titions are promised, and all in
all this should prove a show
with a difference.

The main event at the show
is (he Hugo Award ceremony,
which needs no introduction lo
anyone remotely interested in
Scenes Fiction On the lighter
side there is theatre and a cos-
tume competition - which has
apparently been known to take
over six hours. Guests of
honour include Doris Leasing,
Alfred Bester and Brian Aldiss,
while Jim Burns' artwork pro-
vides graphic backdrop and

Dave Langtord (columnist in
0000 PLUS, amongst other
things) provides the humour.

The bad news Is that the
event doesn't take place for

another year - so mark it down
fox 37th August to 1st Septem-
ber 1987 at the Metropole and
Brighton Centre. Brighton.

16 NOVEMBER 1986 AMSTRAD ACTION So «« » i» MHwd

axwell House,
4 Worship Street
2A2EN.

UBUCATION
TOBER

AmstradCPC

£8,95 tape

£13.85disk

MTHETICMANm

Macabre Mechlabs infested with genetic
horrors hinder Sold, a synthetic man, and
Nejo. a human baby as they figtit their way
through the nightmare zones created by
Wardlock the Machine Sorcerer to house his
ghastly flesh experiments, the Gfobewels and
Bicbentes.

An outstanding achievement of graphics and
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lor escape.

Solo has 10 look after the needs of Nejo ,
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SOFTWARE

TON CRESCENT. SOUTHAMPTON, HAMPSHIRE S01 2EW. TEL (0703) 223694

Mail Order I Kti.tiv.DrMm. Software, ? 3 Pond Street. Hampst&wl. I otilon NW3 2PN

YOU!

Serious Software is now devoted totally to the CPC range, and we need
your help!

With our new magazine 8000 Plus being devoted
totally to owners of the PCW 8256 and S512, we on
A A can devote oil owr pages to the CPC range: the
464, 664 and 61 28. Thi* means that changes are
needed to Serious Software.

Although the PCW became the star of Senoua Software, this
does not mean thai Amstrad Action is purely a games mag now.
Serious Software still covers what business packages come out
for the CPC models, but can devote more space to other aspects
of home computing such .is programming, type-ms, hints and
tips, conuns, graphics and music.

We would like your help with Set jo us Software: after all it's
you t mag. Send us your Type-ins. We are looking for quality
listings thai show elegant use of Basic or even machine -cede.
We will print them if they are worth typing in. Use the form on
page 96 and remember, we pay for what we print,

Having problems with &asic? Can't persuade your printer
lo prinl? Worried about WordStar? Then write io Problem

OUR ADDRESS

Address your correspondence
to Type-in*, Problem Attic,
Hot Tips or A Day in the Life

Attic, Amstrad Action at the Old Bam We will print what
problems we can. and if we can't answer them ourselves then
maybe one of our multitude of readers can - and if they can't
they might like to read ihe reply, Em please don't ask us for
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for others, and there might not be room in AA lor anything else!

Send us your hints and tips. II you've found any neat tricks
to use in Basic, WordStar, Graphic Adventure Creator, Quill,
dBasell. or machine-code or just want to show oU - then send
your tips to Hot Tips, Amstxad Action, al the Old Barn.

And if you are using your CPC to conlrol your tram set. run
your business, play in a rock'n'roll band, or anything else that
you might like to tell us about, the address is A Day in the Life,
Amstrad Action, at the same address. The series kicks off with
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would rather hear from you Tell us what you are up to in
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CPC owners, this mag's totally for your

Amstrad Action, Future
Publishing Limited, Brunei
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TAI1 SAB

SERIOUS SOFTWARE TOP TEN|

Thi

9 chart created by A A

readers

The

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thing since sliced bread. What is happening to all these has certainly dashed in there, in the number four
adventures then? Tell us, please, what you are creating position. If you want your vote included in these charts,
on GAC and we will let everyone else know. use the form on page 96.

... AMSTRAD ACTION NOVEMBER L986 19

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Absolut

Bgcj

inners

More on printing this month,
as Andrew Wilton continues
our crash course in Basic

PART 7

SHORT-CUTS

The PRINT command is one of the most commonly used features
of Basic Because of this, a lot of abbreviations have developed
over the years, to save time typing programs in. Sight back in
Part 1 we saw how you can save time by typing a question-mark
instead of the command itself.

The command :£ stili pretty cumbersome to use Try this
little program:

icroat-itoio

20 ftMNT "TMb ia mesttge »s»t*r

30PEIKTJ»;

40 k&mT * oat of* total of ten' ■

SO NEXT b

Even using question-marks, that's a bit long-winded for such a
simple operation, L' you wanted to do all that printing in one
program line, you'd end up typing:

?"This fc message number ";;? b;:? M oat of a total c

Notice the way you have to put semicolons to stop Arnold from
moving down a line, immediately followed by colons to sepa-
rate it from The next PRINT command.

In fact, you don't have to do anyihirig so complex if you
want to print a whole load of things on one line of the screen -
be they messages, variable values or whatever - you only need
one PRINT command for the lot of them. That dreadful line
above becomes;

?*'This fc m««sage nunabe*"jb

This time you don'i need any colon*, because you're not trying
to separate different commands. The only command in the line
is (he question-mark at the beginning, meaning 'PRINT'. The
rest of the line is just the material you want printed - we call this
the piintiiat. The semicolons between the different items not
only separate them, but also make sure Arnold prints them all
on the same line of the screen.

Although PRINT was one of the very first commands we
covered in Absolute Beginners Part 1 , we saw it there only in its
simplest foim. When we met FGR-NEXT loops a couple of
issues back, we came across another use of PRINT, This little
program shows both forms of PRINT command at work:

lftramr "Aad now for is whole load of numbers!"
a m 1 to ttfr

minuet*

The PRINT commands in lines 10 and 50 each put a message on
screen, while the one in line 30 prints out the value of the loop
variable 'a' for each pass through the FOR-NEXT loop.

This much you've seen before in other forma* Now try
typing in a new line between lines 20 and 30:

"Numb** ";

Note the semicolon at the end of the line, Don't put a colon there
by mistake, or you'll miss the point of the exercise.

You won't be surprised to find that line 2S prints the
message Number ' on screen, Line 30 then prints the value of
V, but on the same Line of the screen thai the 'Number '
message went on - and this is new. Up till now, each PRINT
message has gone on its own separate line of the screen.

Every lime Arnold gets a PRINT command, he puts the
message (or variable value or whatever) on screen and then
moves down a line. He does this because he assumes you'll
want the next message printed on a separate line. You can see
this very clearly indeed if you add this new line 35 to the
program:

35 PRINT

When you now run the program you'll find it leaves a blank line
after each 'Number such-and-such' message. The PRINT com-
mand in line 33 makes Arnold move down io the next line of the
screen, even though there isn't any message tor him to print.

As we've seen, Arnold assumes thai he's supposed to move
down a line after each PRINT command. Sometimes you won't
want him to do this, so you'll have to tell him not to. That
semicolon on the end of line 25 tells Arnold to stay on the same
line, and this means that line 30 prints the value of "a 1 on the
same line as each 'Number ' message.

IF...

Let's use our new knowledge of printing straightaway, Type

this program in and run it:

IB FOR c-1 TO 10

! "There will be «;10-c;" mora messages like Oil*"

: w

►

.!«« tern**..... AMSTRAD ACTION NOVEMBER 1986 21

SPECIAL

Mathematically, this ia always going to be right. The expression
1 10-c' in line 20 always works out as the number of messages
Bull to Joe printed. Grammatically though, it 'a got one slight
problem: the last message but one will read, "There will be 1
more messages like this', and that's not terribly good English,

Edit line 20 and add a new line 35, so that the two run as
follows;

■:-■'-' „:■■ v . : . ' >: v. : . r :Y .-.■ "

or v?**! to S" ELSE

Now Arnold gets it right, and yon get your first look at three
extremely powerful commands IF, THEN and ELSE. These
give you much more control over Arnold than you've had so
far.

Up till now, Arnold has done precisely what yon told him to
do. He hasn't been at all intelligent about this: he's just blindly
followed your orders. With IF, THEN and ELSE, all this changes.
If you want Arnold to do something in a particular set of
circumstances only, you can tell him so. The command 'IF a = 40
THEN PRINT b 1 tells Arnold to print the value of the variable "b".
but only if "a' has a value of 40. If 'a' does not have a value of 40,
then Arnold ignores the PRINT command altogether.

Suppose we had a line reading TF a- 40 THEN PRINT b'.
On its own the command "PRINT b" would tell Arnold to display
the value of the variable "b* on the screen, but that 'IF a ^40
THEN ...■ qualifies things. It tells Arnold that he should obey the
'PRINT fa' only if 'a' has a value of 40-

We call "a - 40* the condition of the IF-THEN command.
Don't mistake it for an assignment command; they may look
similar, but conditions and assignments are completely differ-
ent. The condition 'a — 40' doesn't change the value of "a 1 - it just
tests it.

When Arnold comes across an IF command, he evaluates
the condition. That is. he checks to see whether or not it's true. If
the condition is true - if 'a' is equal to 40, or '10-c' is equal to 1
in the earlier example - Arnold finds the command after THEN
and performs it.

So much for IF and THEN, but what about ELSE? Well, just
as THEN tells Arnold what to do if the condition is true, ELSE
tells him what to do if it's false. In line 25 above, the THEN
command tells him to print the first message while the ELSE iells
him to print the second one. He chooses between them using the
condition,

If the condition *10-c- V is true - if '10-c' does equal 1, in
other words - Arnold prints the first message, as the THEN
command instructs him. If it's false, however, he ignores THEN
and the PRINT command which follows it. Instead he prints the
second message, because that's what ELSE tells him to do-

Let's look at another example of IF- THEN-ELSE programm-
ing, This time there's a very important job for an IF-THEN
command to do. First of all. here's the listing without an IF-
THEN:

!**»**

Z» FOR :*« 4 tO 9 StEF -1

3» *EBtT «'> divided by "*;" eqi

■»to*Wfc

46 NEXT b

That 'STEP -1' means that the value of the loop variable "b'
counts downwards, in this case from four to zero. When the
value of 'b' gels to zero, Arnold gels into problems with line 30.

The last item in line 3-0's printlist is "a/b* - the value of 'a'
divided by the value of 'b 1 , in other words. Since 'b' is zero on
the Ust run through, Arnold tries to divide the value of a' by
zero and print the result, He can't do this properly, because
dividing a number by sero is a mathematical impossibility.
Instead he prints up the error message 'Division by zero' , along
with a non&onsc value for 'a/b'

By substituting in a new line 30 with a suitable IF-THEN
command in it we can avoid this problem. What we want is a
line which testa for the loop variable 'b' being equal to zero,
puts up a special message if it is zero, or just carries on with the
division if it isn't

You should now have a fair idea what the new line 30 is

going to look like. It will be something like 'IF (b is zero) THEN
(print a special message) ELSE (do what the old line 30 did)'.
See if you can work out a Brushed line 30 for yourself.

MORE CONDITIONS

We've seen how Arnold can cope with TF-conditions like "a = 40'
or "10-c** 1'. but he's a lot more flexible than this. Try typing
this program in and running it:

IGFGBd-lTOIQ

20 IF d*5 THEN PRINT 4f> i* !«*•

isn't"

JftHEXTd

The Sign '<■.' is the less-ihan sign. So 'IF d<5' reads 'if d is less
than 5*. When "d" is less than $ Arnold obeys the first PRINT
command and the rest of the time he obeys the second one.

There's a corresponding V sign which means greater-
than, and together these two signs are called inequalities. (To
remember which is which, you can think of a megaphone: small
sound at smaller end, big noise at big end.)

Notice what happens in the above program when d is equal
to 5: Arnold obeys the second of the two PRINT commands,
because less than' is a strict condition- If you mean 'less than or
equal to' you must use the less-than and equals signs together,
like this:

26 MONT "The rt will be "; 10-c;

25 IF J4-e*l THEN PRINT "nan message like tWs"

fHIKT '*»w*» weswg** ilk* *is"

You can do the same with the greater-than and equals
signs, and in both cages it doesn't matter which way round the
signs go: "> = ' and " — >' mean the same thing.

The most useful combination of signs is npt-equ$} t which
you make with the greater-than and less-titan signs like so: '<>'.

Often you'll find you can get the same results two different
ways with an IF-THEN-ELSE command. As far as Arnold is
concerned, 'IF a- I THEN b- 1 ELSE b=Z' is the same as "IF
aol THEN b= 2 ELSEb= 1*.

SUMMARY

The PRINT command normally puts each printed message on a
new line. If you follow the message with a semicolon ( ; ) Arnold
will print the next message on the same line-

You can print a series of messages with one PRINT
command, putting them in a piinthsl.

The commands IF, THEN and ELSE let you specify alterna-
tive commands to be performed m different circumstances. A
line using IF goes "IF (condition) THEN (first command) ELSE
(second command) 1 ■

The condition is something like "a 30' or l h<lQ\ and tells
Arnold how to choose which command he should obey - the
first one or the second, that is. If the condition is true - if 'a' has a
value of 30 or *b* has a value of less than 10* in the two e jcamptes
then he will obey the nrsl command. Otherwise, he'll obey the
second One.

The 'ELSE (second command)' part of an ff-THEN-ELSE hue
is optional. If there's no ELSE command and the condition is
false, Arnold will just go on to the next line.

Types of condition (with some examples):

equals

less than

greater than

Ca>'.b' means a is less than
b')

< less than or equal to ('a< - h' means a is less

than or equal to b*)

greater than or equal to

not equal

('lob' means 'a isn't equal
tob*)

22 AMSTRAD ACTION NOVEMBER 1986 w. ^ rt b«]d t

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If you have followed this series through from Part On*,
you will bo pleased to hear that you are now in a

go of CP/M - by doing some * housekeeping 1 . This
doesn't mean you have to get the Hoover out, but
refers to the practice of keeping your disks in order and
using them efficiently for storing programs and
documents.

When you buy a program - a word-processor, a database or a
computer language for example - what you are buying is a
'master' disk mat contains the program files you need, and
probably some sample files arid maybe a tutorial to set you on
your feet. It is good practice to make botli a 'backup' of the
master disk (or dicks), so that you don't corrupt it, and a 'work'
disk which you use from day to day.

We have already touched on the subject of backups in Part
Three of this series. We made a backup of your CP/M master
disk so that you didn't have to keep using your only copy of the
operating system. To recap briefly, we used the Disckit3
program (or Disckiffi if you have CP/M version Z.Z rather than
CP/M Plus) to copy the contents of your master disk onto a blank
disk.

The Disckit programs are ideal for making backup copies
of master disks as they actually copy disks exactly: bit for bit as
they appear on the master disk. To make a backup copy, first
insert your CP/M master disk into the built-in drive and boot up
CP/M. Then enter DI5CKXT2 or DISCKIT3 according to which
version you have. A menu appears on the screen which is fairly
self-explanatory - except that the numbers for activating each
option refer to the function keys and not the numerical keys
along the top of your keyboard,

So press the 17 function key to copy a disk. A new menu
appears asking you which drive contains the disk you wish to
read from; this is the disk you will be copying from. So press 13
for the built-in drive, The next menu asks where the disk you
wish to write to is to be found; the disk you wish to copy to. If
you have only one drive then press 19. but if you have a second
drive attached press ft.

The screen should clear, and ask you to insert the disc you
wish to WHITE. Remove your CP/M master disk and insert the
program disk you want to copy, and then press any key. From
then on just follow the instructions on the screen. If you have a
single-drive system you have to keep swapping the two disks
back and forth as Arnold reads chunks of data from the source
disk into memory, and then copies it back out to the destination
disk. K you have two drives you can. sit back and watch the
drive lights flash back and forth as Arnold reads from one disk
and writes to the other.

In either case it is a good idea to make sure the protection
tabs on your master disk are in before you start, in case you get

muddled up

between source

and destination at some

point after all. Arnold doesn't

know the difference)

WORK DISKS

You now have a backup disk, which is a direct copy
of the master disk. Put your master disk away somewhere
safe (if it's really important, in a different building in casr-
One bums down!). You won't have lo use the master disk
again unless something gees badly wrong with your backup.

Put your backup copy into your built-in disk drive and
enter DIR to look at the disk's file directory. It will probably
contain quite a number of files, many of which you are unlikely
to use in day-to-day work and are really just taking up valuable
disk space that could be better used.

In particular there may be various files labelled README
or SAMPLE, or with .DOC or .TXT extensions, that are there to
help the novice use the program; they are meant to be
discarded once you know what you are doing. The idea of a

need from day to day, hopefully leaving you enough space on
the disk to store the documents and data you will be creating
while you work.

The first thing to do is decide which files you are going to
need. These may be listed m the documentation supplied with
the package, but as a general rule of thumb you will probably
need most of the files with a .COM extension.

For example, if you are working with WordStar you are
going to need WS.COM as this contains the main program itself.
You are also likely to need [he 'overlay' files - those with an
,OVR extension - as these are called by the main program when
needed. There may well be a short file with the .SUB extension
which should be on your work disk; we will look at Submit files
later in this series. Don't be too concerned about missing any
vital tiles out, as the program should throw up an error message
if it finds a file missing: a message such as WSLOVR missing
makes its point quite clearly.

it is also a good idea, if you have the space, to copy
DCE.COM from side one of your CP/M system disk onto your
work disk (or STAT.COM if you are running CP/M version 2.3).
Having these files on your work disk lets you easily find out how
much space you have left without the inconvenience of continu-
ally swapping disks. Having PBP.COM would be useful too, as
you could copy files from disk to disk without too much
aggravation.

CREATING A WORK DISK

The first stage in creating your work disk is to format a new,
blank disk and copy the system tracks onto it so that it is a 'boot
disk' - containing CP/M itself. This is done, again, with the help
of the Disckit programs. Sun DISCKIT2 or DISCXIT3, but this
time press f4 to format a disk. Press f9 from the next menu, to
format your work disk in 'system format*; and the f5 or f5 key
according to the number of drives you have. Remember your
built-in drive is A:, and your second drive, if you are so
privileged, is B:. Follow the instructions on the screen and sit
back as your new disk is formatted.

You should now have a freshly formatted disk, pristine
clean and ready for the files necessary to turn it into a fully-
fledged work disk.

So how do you copy the files across? by using the PIP
command of course, as we learnt in Part Four last month, Start
by pipping across the PIP.COM file itself, and Dffi.COM from
your CP/M master disk. Insert your CP/M master disk into the
built-in drive and enler:

A.'plp

*b: ■ pip.com

*b; - dir.com

24 AMSTRAD ACTION NOVEMBER 1986 ^.h^^w)-,

SPECIAL

Now enter DIR B: and you should see these two tiles on the
directory of your work disk. You've now got all you need to do
the rest using just your work disk, and can put your CP/M
muter disk away as it won't be needed any more.

The next stage is to PIP the files you have decided you axe
going to need from your application program backup disk. You
should know enough about PIP to do this by yourself by now.

Remember to keep an eye on how much free apace you've
got left on your work disk: you want to leave enough apace for
the file* you Are going to create when you actually sit down to
some real work, otherwise the whole exercise will be poimtess!
Remember too that you can always ERAse P1P.COM from your
work disk when you've finished, and maybe DIK.COM (or
STAT.COM) too; though this would be a shame as it would mean
you wouldn't easily be able to check for free apace later on.

By way of example here is the directory of one of the work
disks we use on Amstrad Action.

4 -i ■■ Jir
A; ME
At KiTJCIJU
fls tlUliJU

*, : t i- t .-.rn

<4| I'fflN

Mrl I WBOVLY1 GVR i JlJi'loAVT. BOB j UtHUK:) inj*

BA». t CSM 1*1 i , lr'*i , #;

HI t At&uLUiL M 1 tATCHN

pftf ? I .•'■ 1.1 if I

- uexoFt i * i lovin i-i

1 i-ATCIfH i ,' i I .i.L-.O ■ I, i:.i

■t ftOPC^EH EiVS i >V»Ci."ll W>J

... i I I C 1* ■ FPLIHKS -ir,h

i' i ifCi )up:i j* ; i-i.vni uts

W WJL II.); 1 4

Ai SFM.I7

HffESiT K M-

It is a WordStar disk, containing CPftA as well so that we can
'boot 1 directly from the disk, but as you can see we don't put
PIP.COM or STAT.COM on as well. This is partly to save space,
and also because there is another, rather irregular, way of
finding out how much free space there is on the disk. First you
reset Ihe Amstrad by pressing CONTROL, SHIFT and ESC at
the rjsme time, and then you enter the Amsdos command CAT
(short for catalogue). Amsdos is the Amstrad disk operating
system, considerably more basic than CP/M, that is built into
your Arnold if you have a disk drive attached. Fortunately the
Cat command lists the files on your disk together with their
length in kilobytes and the amount of free space left on the disk.
l( is best to do this before you start work for the day, as you cart
then boot up CP/M afterwards by entering \CPtA.

MAKING A LIBRARY

Once you are actually using your work disk, you will find thai it
rapidly fills with the document or data files that you create while
using the word-processor, spreadsheet or whatever program
you are running. Many programs, including WordStar, create
backup files of your work every time you save a document.
These are essentially your previously saved file renamed with
the BAK extension. The backup of the document you are
working on at the time should be retained in case of problems,
but other hies with the extension .BAK can be erased to make
more room on the disk,

However, even after you have erased surplus backup files,
a lime will come when your work disk is totally hul. At this point
you have a choice: either make a new work disk or create a
'library' of older files that you might need to refer to again, or
need just for the record', Which choice you make depends on
your work pattern. If you are a writer, for example, at any one
time you really only need to work on your current document,
Older documents can be filed away for reference. If you are
runnirig spreadsheets, on the other hand, you might constantly
need to look at a variety of spreadsheets and so need several
work disks.

A 'library' disk is created in much the same way as a work
disk, only you don't bother to put the program files themselves
on the disk. A copy of PIP.COM and DfR.COM are quite
useful files to have on library disks, but not vital, So -^

you could end up with nearly 170K space for
your documenia If your work is easily
divided into categories- a writer, ^
for example, could have
novels, short stories

and correspondence - then it might be best to create several
library disks, using one for each category.

So, with careful use of PIP and ERAse on your work disks
and libiary disks you should always have enough room on your
disks, .uid should always be able to find a file when you want it.
There's nothing like an organised collection of disks for making
your working life easier.

Next month we shall look at more of the wonderful things
you can do with the PIP command, and at some of the other files
to be found on your CP/M master disk. And yes, I know that is
what we were supposed to be doing this month, but you'll just
have to wait]

FftOftLEMS WltH A CPC664

! if ■ yovi ',*r* tap'. UWtWMr Uf «

! ;CPC8$t ^you are us*Hfu#airtly
doubJy disadvantaged - you

[have ie Item itito CP/M £.3 and
sijo defi't have * copy of
DSCS3t2. However, . yde* sy-
stem $aks do contain slher

; progtisrt* that fulfil the same

IT Is used to format a

j blank dj*k in *y**wn format. The
I prog*a|ri . is -stored in * file -

4*^;;#0W*A?.G(*«; H yo*

wish io format your (Stifc m Data
Formal -', without the System
tracks - than use the qualifier
fO*MATD

DISC COPY is used far copying
disks if you have a i^ie-drive
system and, like DISCTQT, Will
format the disk too if Ous hasn't
been done already, tit sister
command is COPYDISC, which
is used if yon have {wo disk
drives.

copying Fats with

A* w* juejtfioned in Part Four of
Mot series, copying fus* from
one disk to another o*ing PIP
under &/M 2.2 is poasibta only
! if- ;.you. actually have twe disk
dritet.;it you only have one
you at* a bit stuck/but
/Amsrtrsd has supplied
another program,

| MJBCOFY COM,, ■pacilteally
designed for this purpose. So n?
| espy a file under CP/M 2.2 yon
th# command ITLECQPT

CP/W 1*1

The utanamo can be ambiguous,
. ... so it is fruit* OK, for axamp'*, to
SSy TTLECOVY *.COM if you
wish (o copy all ihe command
files from your source disk. The
screen prompts you quite clear-
ly when you most change disks
but again, it i* up to you to keep
track of Which is (he SOURCE
dtak and which the
DESTINATION (It might be
wise to use the writs-protect tab
on your source disk.)

COPY-PROTECTED PROGRAMS

| Making working copies of your

using PUP i» itrajghi*

unl«w» th* waster disk

t-4» --'Nsb>^p9fw«*<?M^'.- TMs means

: that a, wave* bit of code on the

mattas disk prewmts you from

the fflas v- a system

to hinder software pi-

rate* eapitahsisg on otter

p*cp£s»' m»rk>

k s)*o makes h difficult lor

>ple tfke us. who want to

[intake legitimate copta* ■ for

i^avd work disks. Unfor-

tunately there Is little that you
can do about copyprotected
programs, entaas in* protection
is fairly basic. Try doing a
Dffioctory of ihs master disk.
One easy form; of protection Is
flmpiy to kbal fitas "fi/arrama.
which prevents others frcm
using the *,* format for pipping
scroM ali the files on a disk.
This dan be circumventad hist
as easily by renaming the
propriste files.

AMSTRAD ACTION NOVEMBER 1986 25

SERIOUS SOFTWARE

your tofmsr ooesr/cw A/vsweeeD.

PROBLEM ATTIC

We've had a lot of letters in the Problem Attic postbag
this month asking about hardware scrolling, and how
ft can be used in Basic programs. Well, this is rather too
complicated a subject for fl straightforward three-
paragraph reply - three pages would be more like it.
Normally at such times we just mutter 'Not enough
space' and move on to the letters we can answer
briefly.

It's a pretty interesting subject though, and It
neatly ties in with a letter in last month's PA about
Ghosts and Goblins. Just this once then, we're going to
give a complicated subject the space it needs - but you
needn't think we're going to make a habit of it.

Vertical scrolling is very easy, and there's no real problem
adding it to Basic games. This program illustrates scrolling the
screen up and down.

10 K.cuur<1-FGS<0#}:y coord *VP05(#0) "stores Cursor

position

2ti LUCATE 1.1 "moves cursor to too of screen

30 PRINT GHIU(II) 'moves cursor up one line, forcing

screen to scroll down

'Sb WHILE INKFYJ-'VWENO 'waits For you to press a key

40 LOCATE 1.SE5 'rr.oves cursor to bottom of &cr*en

50 PR1N1 CHRIUG) '»ovas cursor down one line, forcing

Scraen to scroll up

00 LOCATE X. coord. y .cogrd ' rsstor as previous cursor

Cos i lion

This doesn't do anything very impressive, but you should be
able to get the general ides from the comments on each line.

Horizontal scrolling isn't anywhere near bo easy. If you
want to scroll the screen sideways from Basic you'll need to use
the OUT command, which sends a number to a peripheral chip.
That'll be enough to put quite a lot of people off, but it isn't too
difficult. The only problem is that it messes up the way Arnold
writes things to the screen. This listing should give you an idea
what I mean:

10 MODE 2

20 FOR a-1 TO 36

30 CALL &BD10 'could use FRAME on 664/6128

40 OUT &BC00.13

50 (IU1 6BD00.S

60 NEXT a

70 LOCATE 1 , 1

80 PRiNT "This should be in the top left corner"

As you'll see if you run this, Arnold cant cope with the changes
you've made. All printing carries on as if the screen was still
muse i oiled. To get your screen back to normal you can either
type MODE 2, or force a vertical scroll using the cursor keys.

This last point is another reason why the OUT method of
horizontal scrolling doesn't work too well- Every time you force
a vertical scroll using the simple method we started with, you
undo any horizontal scrolling you've done using OUT.

Horizontal scrolling is much easier if you knew a little
machine-code. Two firmware routines make the programming
very easy indeed, and they let Arnold know what you're doing
so he can print to the screen properly.

NON-TECHNICAL

To start with, here's a Basic program which uses the firmware

routines. You don't need to \

know a thing about machine-code to \.
use them, but there's an explanation^
afterwards for anyone who's interested.

10 DATA SCn &0B ,ftBC ,8.23. &Z3.&C3.&05.&SC

20 DATA &CD fcOB.&BC.fiiZB.&ZI.&Ca.UJii.&aC

30 oldBen-HiNFH MPflORY (oldmem-lfi) -makes

rour for machine code

40 FOR a-HlMEM*! TO uldne* 'this loop

50 READ a: HOKE a . b "pokes in

f)0 NEXT a 'the machine code

70 SOlflf.t"Hi«£H*1 set '•if|hT.-HIMEM*&

80 FOR c-1 TO 100

30 CALL SB019 *5Sfie as 664/61 28 FRAHE command

100 CALL scloFt 'scrolls I aft

110 NEXT c

120 FOR c-1 10 75

130 CALL &8D1B

140 CALL scnghl "'ftfirol 1 S right

150 foEXT c

160 L0CA1 b i i

170 PRINT "This IS in the top loft corner"

180 MEK0RY oldmem ' rsdaias space used for machine code

The important bits of the program are lines 10 to 70 which set up
the scroll routines, and line 160 which dismantles them after
you've finished with them. If you start your program with the
commands in lines 10-70 and finish with ihe MEMORY command
from line 180, you can use the commands CALL sclefi and CALL
scright whenever you want to scroll the screen left or right.

BOFFINS ONLY

That's all you need to know to use the routines from Basic If
you're interested though, here's how the first routine
disassembles:

SClaft: CALL 4BC0C SCR-GET-LOCATIOH

:No entry conditions -- on exit, HL
: contains the current 'screen offset'.
INC HL , Increases HL

JNL HL ;by two.
.IP &BCQ5 ;SCR-SET-OFFSET
.Value in HL is used as new 'screen
nffset*.

Tho second one's the same, but with DECs instead of INCa. In
other words, one increases the 'screen offset' by two and the
other decreases it by two.

Clearly the screen offset is the key to horizontal scrolling -
increase it by two to scroll left a fortieth of a screen's width, or
decrease it by two to scroll right, It's also, incidentally, the key
to vertical hardware scrolling from machine-code. Increase the
offset by 30 (decimal) to scoll up one hne, or decrease it
similarly to scroll down, This accounts lot something you'll have
noticed with the Basic horizontal-scroll program: scrolling left
or right by a whole screenful also scrolls the screen up or down
one line.

None of this tells you what the screen offset actually is, but
wed be here all day if I tried explaining that. If you're really
keen to know about such things get hold of Artisoft's CPU
Firmware Guide, read it and inwardly digest it. Once you've
done that, you'll be ready for the technical stuff that follows,

GHOSTS AND GOBLINS

Yea, it's that horrifying saga of colour modulators producing

26 AMSTR AD ACTION NOVEMBER 1986 i*. » *. t^ .

SERIOUS SOFTWARE

yovR. Loftiesr ooesr/o/v A/vscoeRea

PROBLEM ATTIC

black-and-white pictures

again. This isn't a change of

subject though, since it turns out

that a clever scrolling technique is

the culprit,

For those who missed last month's
Problem Attic, the tale goes like this- Soft
ware house Elite produced the AA Rave
game Ghosts and Goblins a couple of months
back, believing it to be compatible across the CPC
range. Imagine their (and our) surprise when it turned
out to be incompatible with Amstrad's TV modulator,
producing only a black-and-white picture even On a colour
TV get.

Compatibility problems between machines happen all the
time, but this was the first time we'd heard of modulator
problems- The modulator simply converts me RGB (red -green-
blue) signal meant for a colour monitor into the modulated
signal which mo«t TV seta require through their antenna socket.
For Ghosts and Goblins to mess up the modulator output, it had
to be doing some very strange things with the RGB signal

Needless to say, it was. To be precise it was moving the
"logical' screen (ie. the picture of the ghosts, goblins etc)
backwards and forwards across the surface of the 'physical'
screen (i@, the hard glass bit you look at)- You can see this effect
for yourself, with this little bit of Basic. It replaces lines 80-130 of
(he poked -in m&chwe-COde horizontal scroll listing, so these
must be deleted before typing in the new lines.

30 FOR a-1 TO 50

90 CALL &BD19

100 OUT 4BC0Q.3:0uT i 60.00. 5

110 CALL BPD19

120 OUT &BC0D.3:0uT &BDQ0.&8E

130 NEXT a

MO flEHOHY oldiien

This looks ugly, and would probably give you a headache if you
atared at it for too long. If you're looking at it through a
modulator, it should also look distinctly colourless. (1 don't have
a modulator to test this, but I'm pretty sure of it.) Now you know
what Ghosts and Goblins 'does, so the nest question is 'Why?'

Piled detail from GhQSlS'fi'GobliriS

PROBLEMS WITH SCROLLING

A couple of issues ago I made some bold statements about
Arnold's hardware scrolling capabilities compared to those of
other machines. In fact, Arnold's hardware scroll does have one
slight problem: it's too fast.

As you may remember, the horizontal scroll routines can
only scroll the screen a fortieth of its width at a time. That's not
just the way the routines are written: the hardware simply can't
manage a smaller scrolling action.

Fast Scrolling on Vorlei's TLL

*«

To get a smooth continuous scroll you need to make one
scrolling movement every fiftieth of a second - the timing for
this is handled in our scrolling programs by those CALL &SD1S
statements. If there are fifty movements per second, and they
each have to be at least a fortieth of the screen width, you're
clearly going to scroll past a whole new screen of landscape in
less than a second.

This is too fast for anything much more than reflex game-
play, though Vortex's TLL did quite well using these techni-
ques. Another notable hardware scroller was Gremlin's Thing
on a Spring, though there were slight problems at the screen
edges on this one.

For the most part game* programmers use either software
scrolling or what you might call burst' scrolling. Software scroll
only works well on very small windows (eg Rambe, Stainless
Steefi and causes an ugly rippling effect if used on large areas -
Sounder and the tank stage of Beach-Head are cases in point.

The preferred technique is "burst' scrolling - keeping the
screen fixed until the player reaches the edge of it, and then
fast-scrolling the nest screen into position. Prime examples of
this are Green Beret and Thrust, This is stUl far from perfect,
and it was an attempt to improve on this that brought Ghosts and
Goblins its problem*.

THE 'SOLUTION 3

The aim in Ghosts and Goblins was to provide a slow hardware
scroll, so that the 'burst' scrolling wouldn't be so abrupt as it is

prat^m^iutk: AMSTRAD ACTION NOVEMBER 1986 27

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The 'ii' adcicH'i? mars -game tor itts. age ynup. CcrcenTatng on rxiuj)lca!»i and

nvipori, ir ovbs roLis of fun. 0am sstfte tor less.

Muiio Trwjory (7-adun)

A oofnprttneisivB n^sic ocv'se *ifi(«fl ft fJFBoe flTe thmiy.

Ban: GeonieUy (St]

Eicsiisr; us* c( tf!« OMfuSir n ttrodiong if".* Oftolt «ub;«a A, tutor at you own

■.eytcard

IN THrtot «ada in spg4 -3 poojair,s ojwmg you 16 menu optons o cnoose bw;

i t wt i ma* 1 fta-iij

using e*«f 4*1 grap-rcs ihs comsa wi raany beneft fta mtner. H foj want a mat":

zzji* opnl settle ft? tea and oe asappoinlsd,'

Pltyalei

Tn« r-os: 1 gfiiy '*(« p-ocram 'w tire U ic 16 year tk- u&ng supefp arsptcs it has

com s*s on nne secions of Pfryies.

Cfiemiilry

The Nteal prcg-arn to ju-b a kd an edj? n 'us st,3,»d. has scwsifs on B itnpgralnl

HfEOfts of Che Ti'siry (or IE » 1 6 y wr oiOi

.ean key daum-iois arc pi your w=ls agi rs* in* corpjtor on tops such as ca«s.
Tiar -fiats cr-cio-synthes 5 r«spv a:ipn. (^wkitKin ml SO on Wr.r^n by prolessioul

amhoF like ai c?ur on»graim,

innpiri

A specialist Sudyd weather andisi«rWf and relaWlOpcs Ei«picnafy t*W*«J

ALSO FOR PCW 8256
«SA H0TUHE ring ut<»3i3Si.rPtti (UW|

Mail arder only. 5rmJ cheque-po jVtu no for irnmeditt* dtfivury
KVoadowvaSe Estal*. Rahien, Limencx, Ir&land
Teleptwr*- |36i;. ?T89* |U K . 010-35J*1 -Z79W

28 AMSTRAD ACTION NOVEMBER 1986

SERIOUS SOFTWARE

in, for example, Green Beret.
The method used involved both
scrolling the screen and moving it.

If you've typed, in the program so far. you can get a Ghosts
and Goblins-style scroll by altering line 100 as shown below, 11
you haven't, here it is in full:

10 DAIA &LD.&O0 &&C,&25.t23 iC3.505.a3C

20 DATA SCD.ftOB BRC.&2H &2B.&C3,S0S.&BC

30 oldnein-HIwEliMEHORV (t>ld*e»-mj

d0 FOB r.-HlMFK-l TO o!dpe»

50 3EA0 h:P0KF a.i»

GO NFXT a

70 Bcl*ft-«IWE»-1 scrignt-HIKEHrfl

80 FQ3 a-1 TO 50

90 CAM &8D1S

100 CALL £cle r t:0ir SBCOC 3:001 fr3DU0,5

110 CALL SBD19

120 OUT SBC00.3:l>Jt &RD00.&BE

130 KFXT a

M0 MEMORY a 1 dm mi

The OUT commands in lines 100 and 120 move the screen left
and right by an eightieth of its width - you'll have seen this
already if you've been typing things in and running them as
you've been reading, (Note that 'moving" is not the same as
'scrolling 1 - 111 explain the difference in a minute.) The
difference now is that 'CALL scleft 1 in line 100,

Gi9?ti&eret os*t Burst scrolling

PROBLEM ATTIC

an eightieth, Alter another fiftieth of a second line 100
scrolls/moves the screen another eightieth to the left, and so on.
If you've still got the default colours on screen you won't be
able to see this happening: it just looks like a slow smooth
scroll. Sol the border and screen background to different
colours and you'll be able to see what's happening quite clearly
- the left and right edges of the screen blur where it's being
moved rapidly from side to side. Here 'moving" literally means
changing where the detailed picture part of Arnolds display
appears on the glass tube of the monitor.

fcBSOO.5

NOW YOU TRY IT

This method is a very nice way of halving the scroll speed
without losing smoothness, and could usefully be applied to
Basic versions of Scramble and similar scrolling games. You'd
need to do the timing with the EVERY command rather than
using CALL &BD19 or FRAME, and make sure ihe scroll/ move
commands were on a higher timer priority than any other
interrupt-d riven sequence you had running.

Customised boot

D Herringion (September)
should proceed as follows!
Type |cpr to boot a disk con-
taining Setup.com (the system
disk supplied or a working
copy). Type $e lup. It replies;
Setup

Initial comma uri buffet
Is th («, correct: (Y/N)
Answer ng.

Enter new in*tial com
irand buffer :
Answer star * * ftW. The aM

means Return, but to get it into
(he buffer you have to enter it
this way because the Return key
is used to terminate your entry
(see page 5,24 in the 664
manual). Setup asks Lots more
questions, to which the answers
are all yes unless you want to
change the sign-on message.
"Stat *.*' is fust an example, of
course.
A Greenwood
St Helena

-***«„

^+***t*

"»«.

■

The CALL in line 100 scrolls the screen left by a fortieth of
its width, and the OUTs move it back to the right by an eightieth:
net result, a scroll /move of an eightieth to the left. A fiftieth of a
second later the OUTs in line 1 20 move the screen to the left by

Another good idea is to blank off the blurred columns at
each side alternately - the right-hand one at line 100 and the
left-hand one at line 120, If you set these to the same colour as
the border you cut (he apparent screen width down a little, but
the loss of that unsightly ' edge-flicker 1 more than makes up for
this.

If you can make a decent scrolling game out of any of this,
why not send it in to Type-Ins? Make sure you keep it short
under 3K if possible and give it plenty of grab-factor.
Otherwise it's up to you; knock our socks off and we'll print
your program!

BUT BEAR IN MIND ...

There axe problems with (his kind of technique. For one thing.
OUTs like the ones in lines 100-120 bypass Arnold's firm ware,
ftv this case they work on all the machines J can find to try them
on, but you can't run crying to Alan Sugar if you get compati-
bility problems - Artisoft advises software houses not to use
them.

More seriously, it looks like Amstrad 's modulators can't
produce a colour TV signal out of this kind of monitor input.
One (non-Elite) programmer I met at the PCW show put it down
to the poor quality of the Amstrad units. If this is true it's not
exactly surprising: after all, Amstrad keeps costs down by
cutting specifications fine. The modulator works okay for
normal purposes, and Amstrad can hardly be blamed if it can't
cope with Ghosts and Coblws.

That's certainly not to say that Elite is to blame: indeed I'd
say the company has been been unlucky. 1 don't think anyone in
the industry expected this kind ol problem, and other houses
are just grateful it didn't happen to them.

Moral: Those who live on the cutting edge of technology
will be sacrificed upon it, as Adam Osborne said. Or they get a
bit of bad publicity, at any rate.

wheid*jwid*w,*T™»? AMSTRAD ACTION NOVEMBER 1986 29

THE GAME Jjjf

"What a p«je* '^* hlt the market 2 wpm
new games concept to ,^j9S

Commodore ty^^,,,^^

%£r^

SPECIAL

Arnold sends the kids to school

AA last looked at educational software for the Arnold back in April. We'll start at the bottom this month,
checking out a few packages for pre-school tots, and next month see what's on the syllabus for older learners.

Trio

Pir Julia, £9 9& ubss, £14 95 disk

Been fishing without luck (or Amstrad
programs to educate your offspring? Re-
action ha* had a good number of kllcis
from parents ad r if l in this sea.

Piranha to the rescue! 'There's a hole
in the marker," observed someone at this
'small but lethal' software branch of the
august Macmiltan publishing house. Pir-
anha is sinking its teeth into the games
market and also faking a first educational
venture with Trio, a suite of three learning
games by Raid Bsird aimed at younger
Children.

In &ani Goes Shopping the child has to
go to the correct on-screen Shop and the
correel department within it to find a cer-
tain item - a handbrush era singing bud or
a plump haggis or a clockwork train,

The task is more than child s play; the
instant the instruction screen cleared and 1
found myself wandering in a streetful of
shops, 1 forgot what I was supposed to be
shopping for!

Only the cursor keys or joystick are

needed to play tha game, other than the
spacebar to clear the title page. Instructions
appear on screen lo remind you of litis If
you don' i do anything after a time.

Children from about age three up will
be able to play, since they are not asked to
type letters or words, but they will need
someone to read the item required and the
shop's signboards - though after a while
(he graphics will be enough to identify the
butcher from the baker. The youngest chil-
dren will learn which shops are Likely to
sell the item they want.

The pictures of some item* within the
shops are rather crude. I thought 1 was
buying a 'juicy apple" according to my
shopping list. 'Bad luck,' said the screen,
'you have just bought a red capsicum'.
(How many adults, let aJone children,
would call a red pepper that? There are a
few other obscure items, such as a Batten-
burg cake.)

Guide Sam to the right item and the
screen says, "Well done, all correctl' Then
cornea a bigger challenge: a shopping list
with two items. They must be bought in the
order given. 1 could never remember the
rest of the list after finding my way to the
first typical, says my wife. 1 never made it
to level 3

Computer Snap was my favourite on
the Trio package. The colourful graphics -
Humpty Dumpty, witch on a hioom, lightn-
ing flashing - were charming.

There is no reading or writing invol-
ved in the game, and Only one key to press

when pictures match, as in the popular card
game. So even two-year-olds can play,
without needing evert the dexterity to
manipulate cards.

One player can compete against (he
computer or against a second player.

Tables T&st, the Second program
on Trio, is self-explanatory reinforcement
stuff that a youngster could carry on using
occasionally up to age 10 or 12,

The child selects the 9> table, for
example, using the cursor keys and then
chooses speed: snail, hare, car, airplane or
lightning (f liked the pictures). An insistent
alarm-clock jumps up and down if the time
runs out.

Type the correct answer (on numeric
keypad or main keyboard) and a happy
disco-kid presents an apple; otherwise it's
a skull from a scary goblin.

One criticism is that correct answers
are not given if a wrong answer is typed-

All three programs axe written largely
in Basic, which has both advantages and
drawbacks. It should be possible to alter
data lists to suit your household name for
red peppers; on the other hand a child
could press Escape and crash the program.

All three have music throughout, like a
miniature fairground organ, with various
other electronic sound-effects.

Off**,*.,. AMSTRAD ACTION NOVEMBER 1986 31

SPECIAL

First Steps with the
Mr Men

MfiFmsoIr fS.95 eass. CPC4G4

Richard Boutton's charming story booklet
sets tip four games with the Mr Men, Even A
very young child can play, since no read-
ing 1 or writing is involved. It's good pract
ice with the ideas of left and light, which
even many ad ul fa find troublesome.

In the first. Mr Greedy has to be direc-
ted lo a luscious ice-cream hiding in a
comer of the room. Only the cursor keys
are needed, and colour-coded stickers of
Mi Clever pointing various ways are pro-
vided (though I don't know how long ihey
would las! - presumably you'd be taking
them off lo use the computer for other jobs).
Mr Clever's colours match the colours of
the walls on screen (not much help on a
monochrome monitor, but not essential.)

Mr Greedy doe* nol stop with one ice-
cream, but they become harder to get:
more and more walls appear in the room
and he has to be navigated round them.

Tha booklet doesn't tell you to reset
Ihe computer (Co nirol-Sh if (-Escape all log-
ether) before you can load the following
program without a memory full' error.

Mr Silly is being sensible in the second
program and has gone shopping for a hat.
He says (piciorially) tha style and colour he
wants to try on. Cursor keys move a mar-
ker along the shelves and the Copy key -
with a Mr Clever sticker - selects. What
silly thing does he do when he tries on the
next hat?

/v, .'. 7/. uppMMUnj

The third program was my favourite - I
especially identified with Mr Forgetful who
tidies things up into good places and then
can't remember where.

Mr F has installed a dozen wardrobes
in his room: six along one wall, six facing .
He puts a left shoe in a left-hand wardrobe
and the right shoe in a wardrobe on the
other Bide, How organized! He does the
gams with socks, boots, mittens, skates and
slippers. But oh, no, what is where?

He must go back and forth across (he
room (by means of the cursor keys), loo-
king inside wardrobes- The trouble is that
they stay open only if he finds two things to
match. He somehow has to remember
where he saw the first sock when he finds a
second.

Everything has muddled itself into new
wardrobes if you play the game again.

A variation on the game puts alphabet
letters instead of clothing in the wardrobes.
An adult can specify a subset of letters and
make it fun for a child to learn a few at a
time.

In all these Mr Men games, various
keys allow restarting the game, turning
sound on and off (the tunes are hardly
symphonic) or changing the background
colour.

A nuisance in the packaging is thai lite
booklet does not lit inside with the cassette,
It has to be removed from the outer plastic
sleeve - rather awkward. Loading and
playing instructions seem to be missing
until you think of removing the outer jacket
and reading the back' of it.

The cassette is labelled CPC464'
although the outer package says 'For use
on Amstrad' without specifying. It would
not toad it on our 6128; we did not have a
tape-decked €64 to try it on,

Here St There with the
Mr Men

Miiiorsnh. C7.95 tass CPC4B4, joystick oi hnys

This time Mr Tickle and Mr Grumpy pract-
ice left and right - thinking ahead for
simple route planning is the theme

The object of the first game, Mi
Tickle's Jigsaw Puzzle, is to line up door-

ways and move pieces to build up a com-
plete pickup of Mr Tickle,

|rt (he second game, Mr Tickle tries to
cheer up Mr Grumpy, who doesn't warn to
be cheered up. Mr T's arm can stretch
longer and longer to reach through door-
ways to where Mr G is hiding. Sometimes
he trie* to block up the doorways with
chairs. Mr Tickle's arm can be made to
bounce off walls, chairs, Mr G or even
itself.

Instructions can be given a step at a
time, using the cursor and Return keys, or
planned out b whole list al a time-
Mr Lazy, in the third game, is snooting
under an apple tree. He tries to instruct a
friendly worm to crawl along the cor red
branches and drop a juicy apple for him lo
eat

A gang of four Mr Men in the last game
tries to stop Mr Tickle from moving in a
checkerboard-like game. ■

3Z AMSTRAD ACTION NOVEMBER 1986 k*^ y^ a,»m

SDK1

lew fa
turns you ane-
mia hi v not

r i

TL-MA^m\f\ lA F-l * r. it*

"'Powerplay -

piece Ot BBC sofl ware -

Personal Compute? World Feb 86

The graphics in the game are
marvellous . . The most original
of all such (quiz) games .
A&B Computing March "86

' I was impressed with this game
... the graphics are truly excellent
the questions are interesting

and varied it ^s highly original

and interesting . -

Micro User May "86

L .

Your copy of POWERPLAY cc

WIN YOU A HOLIDAY IN GREECE!*

AMSTRAD CPC4&4 5646128

Cassette £9.95

Disc £14,95

S8C
Disc Only £1 4.95

COMMODORE 64 128

Cassette £9-95

Disc £14.95

ARCANA

SOFTWARE

DESIGN

Please rush me a CASSETTE/DISC*
version of Powerplay for my
, Amstrad/BBC/Commodore 64*

I enclose cheque/P,0. for £

Name ,

Address ,

• Amsnatf & Commodore v&sua- ■ vatfaoie at an qgqq co*TmiU9* stores or aitsci

■

SERIOUS SOFTWARE

BREAKPOINT

All CPCs, cass only
Melbourne House £14,95

This latest Melbourne House utility is a real oddity, and no two
ways about il. It's a monitor - a tool for debugging machine
code programs - and there's nothing unusual about that. The
point is, however* that it's just a monitor: nothing more.

If you want to program in machine code, you really need an
assembler . This enables you to wTite your program in easy-to-
leam assembly language rather than the completely unmemor-
able hexadecimal numbers that make up machine code itself.
There are many assemblers available for the Arnold, and
they're mostly around the £15 mark in their cassette versions.

Once you've got the hang Of programming in assembly
language and siarted writing lengthy, complex programs.
you'll start kj find some unpleasant bugs cropping up. Unlike
Basic, you'll have no error messages to help you and the escape
key is unlikely lo atop your program Worse still, bug-ridden
machine code programs tend to go beserk, often destroying all
evidence of what the problem actually was in the first place.

It 1 a this kind of problem that monitors are intended to help
you solve. They're so called because ihey let you 'monitor 1 the
running of your program and (hopefully) stop it just as things
start to go wrong. That way you can see what you've done
wrong, kick yourself for your own stupidity and then put your
program right. Sounds useful, does it? Sounds like every
Arnold-owning machine code programmer is going to rush out
and buy Breakpoint? Well actually, they aren't.

If you've got an assembler you're not going to bother
buying a monitor, tor the simple reason that you've already got
one. As a general rule, assemblers and monitors are sold
together as an 'assembly language programming system* or
similar. I'll stick my neck out here and say that I can't think of
one assembler commercially available for the Arnold that
doesn't come with some sort of monitor.

A monitor is considerably less useful than an assembler,
and of very little use on its own. Clearly Breakpoint would need
to be quite remarkable to sell under these circumstances.
Equally clearly, I'm afraid, it isn't.

In use it's a fairly ordinary single-step/breakpoint monitor.
You can run your program one instruction at a time, you can run
It slowly while keeping an eye on it, or you can set it off at full
speed with a breakpoint to stop it at some crucial moment.
Breakpoint can also show you areas of memory and allow you to
make small modifications to it- You can search memory for
particular numbers, you can save chunks of code to tape or
disk. All functions are controlled by two-letter commands,
entered at the command line.

All very well, and what it does it does proficently, but that is
what you would expect from any such package, and with most
you would get an assembler as well. Considering that Laser
Genius, reviewed in our July issue, offers a better monitor and
an assembler for the same price, Breakpoint cannot be said to
offer value for money. The sample reviewed was p re-
production, though the manual was very reasonable, but unless
Melbourne House add an assembler on production versions we
cannot recommend it. ■

GOOD NEWS

p» It works, and it both competent
and thorough.

BAD NEWS

■* Buy laser Genius and ynu get a
better monitor and an assembler
thrown in for the same price,
i* Not relocatable in memory

reading

WRONG

PLUS

THE MAC;

AMSTRAD

p- o w e :? 5 e - ssi?*

If you ever use an 8000* series Amstrad - or know
anyone who does - 8000 PLUS isthe magazineto
remember.

Issue 1 had a rapturous reception.

Issue 2 is out Thursday, October 16th. it's even better.
As well as an avalanche of exclusive tips lor PCW
owners, there's the most detailed review yet of the
new Amstrad PC 1 51 2

(Make sure your newsagent reserves a copy.

34 AMSIHAD ACTION NOVEMBER 1986

WORTH FIGHTING FOR/

ONE UAH

WAR MACHINE

You are Rogue Trooper, 2000 AD ? s one-man
war machine — the last Genetic Infantryman on
Nu Earth, All aroundyou an eternal and bloody
war is raging! Step into Rogue's boots and track
d&wn ike traitor who destroyed your comrades
and rescue them from their electronic graves.

Spectrum ■ Commodore * Amstrad • £9.95

*--•-'

*Jt\

M m

Strike Force

COBRfi

Lead the toughest commando squad of all
time in a desperate battle to save the World.
Fight your way through the Enemy's
labrynthine fortress, rescue the hostages
and destroy the vital computer complex
on which the Enemy's power depends.
Time is running out. The countdown to
destruction has begun.

Spectrum Commodore - Amstrad ■ £9.96

Available from your local stockist or, in case of difficulty,

from Richard Bason, Piranha, 4 Little Essex Street, London WC2R 3LF

Tel: 01-836 6633

SERIOUS SOFTWARE

THE OCP ART STUDIO

Rainbird (01-240 8816), CPC 612S disk only, II 9.95

if you want to buy an art package For your Arnold, you'll
find you're spoilt for choice. Under the circumstances any
new system needs to be something really special if it's
going to survive. Rainbird has just released Art Studio
for the 6128 and special is certainly the word for it.

Two things struck me immediately about the package: first
thai -.- v.-orks o-ly in Arnold a two- w fioax-coloui modes [mocU-s

1 I I** -.1 -.* mM ft 1--! _ ^* _T _ Jl 3

second thai it is strongly inspired by the Apple Macintosh and
similar WIMP (Window. Icon, Mouse. Pull-down monu) systems.
How you feel about the first of these is veiy much a matter
□J '.aste - I can't say [ miss mode myself, but it docs seem an
odd omission As for Art Studio being WtMP-irtspired, that's
prelty common these days. The difference here is thnt where
most packages aim to look like She Macintosh, Art Studio sets
qui to perform like it - and IO a considerable extent it succeeds.

PROTECTION

The hirst thing you'll notice about the System is <he Lenalok
protection it uses, I've had my rant in the past about honest
usnis beir.g saddled with cumbersome protection systems, and
I'd certainly call Lenslok cumbersome - but in this case there is
a reason for it

Rambird doesn't try to stop you from making copies of Art
Sturiia; in fact, the publisher helps you. There's a feature which
allows you to save a "customised' version of the program to
disk, so normal copy protection is clearly not going to work.
Given that the program is easily usable without the manual,
Lensiok is the only alternative to actually trusting people.

SELECTING PULL-DOWNS

Once you've got past the protection system to the program

■.tself, you're presented with the usual blank screen. There's a

series of options runs across the top of the screen, and a small

"arrow' pointer. You can move the pointer around using cursor

keys, joystick, or oven a mouse if you're lucky enough to have

one.

To seieci one of the options just move the poimer to it and
press ' soled", (That's the space bar on the keyboard or the fire
button on the joystick.) Selecting an option produces a pull-
down iticnu a list of further options which overlays pan of the
screen like a roller wuf&ojKrblind. Choosing one ol the options
on a pull-down works the same way: move live pointer to it,
press 'select' and there you are.

PAINTING AND SHAPES

The first options you're likely to be interested in axe Fainf and
Shapes. Between them these offer you all the main features
you'll need to create your pictures.

The -Paini puD-down provides the lliree main tools - pen.
brush and spraycan in a variety of different shapes and sizes.
On selecting pen, for example, you'll gel another pull-down
panel demonstrating the sixteen different shapes of pen avail -

'select' and you're in pen mode. Move the pointer onto the
drawing area and it turns from a lillle arrow to a Little pencil.
Hold 'select 1 down, move this pencil pointer and you'll draw a
line.

The brush and spraycan options work in (ha same way, but
with brush- and spraycan-shaped pointers instead of the little
pencil shape. These different-shaped pointers are meant to
remind you which drawing or pointing mode you're in, and like
pull downs they make the program very easy to learn without
the use of the manual.

Although the available ranges of pen shapes and spray
patterns are both fixed, you can aller the selection of brushes to
suit your needs using the edit brush option on the Pamr pull-
down Choosing this option gives you a brush-editing menu
where you can a her the pattern of dots that forms each brush.
This comes in two stages, the data and the mask. Put simply, the
mask defines how much of the background the brush wipes out
and the data defines how much new colour the brush applies.

The Shapes pull-down allows you to "rubber-band' straight
lines, triangles and rectangles. You can also draw circles and
plot individual points.

FILL AND UNDO

Once you've created a drawing with Parnit and Shape you can
flesh it out a bit with Ihe different options from the Fill pull-
down. There are two main types of fill available: solid and over.
Solid fill works on an area of one colour and stops at the edges
of that area. With overfill you outline an area With (say) blue arid
any colour inside is changed to blue, For most purposes you'll
want to use a solid fill.

As well as filling with Hat colour, you can solid-fill an area
wilh one of 'A2 different textures. The predefined textures
include grids, fine checks and wavy-lines, but if you cant find
the one you want you can define one of your own using sdit
texture.

Over is the riskier proposition, bui either kind of fill can
'escape' through the tiniest of gaps. Fortunately titers is a way

36 AM STR AD ACTION NOVEMBER 1986 DuwMtRtMn

SERIOUS SOFTWARE

of reversing a fill or any other kind of drawing operation Thai
goes wrong. Of the various options across the top of (he screen
only one works immediately rather than ottering you a pull-
down of further choices. That option is Undo.

The extra memory on the 6126 allows for certain luxuries,
and Undo ia one of them. Instead of keeping just one copy of
your picture in memory the way most art programs do the
copy you're working on. thai is - Arr Swdic keeps a spare one
aS well- Every time you switch drawing mode or perform some
similar operation, Art Studio brings the Spare copy up to date.

This means thai when you re halfway through performing a
scries 01 fills or whatever, Art Studio still knows what your
picture looked like before you started filling. When you select
Undo, the program restores your working copy to the same
state as the spare,

This spare copy of your picture isn't used just for Undo, h
also makes possible the v/ash texture option on the Fill pull*
down. This remarkable feature takes all the changes you've just
made 10 the picture - all the things that Undo would undo - and
fills them with texture- Tins effectively allows you to paint, spray
and draw with textures rather than solid colours. While you
can't actually see the effect until you've selected wash texture, n
remains a very powerful technique.

MAGNIFY

Another benefit of the S128's extra memory is the Magnify
option. Rather than the small magnification window offered by
most packages. Art Studio gives you a full-screen image. You
can enlarge a given area of the screen by 2, 4 or 8 times.

Sirr.ply select the appropriate enlargement factor from the
Magnify pull-down, move the cursor (now shaped like a
magnifying glass) to the area of your drawing which you want
enlarged and press select'. The screen now fills with an
enormous blown-up section of your picture.

Though there's no normas-size image of the magnified area
you're working on. you're unlikely to find this a problem- The
large window means thai on >} Z magnification you can see
almost a full quarter of your picture - easily enough to see what
you're doing to the picture as a whole. You can switch between
the different enlargements without returning to the main menu.
On - 3 there's an optional grid to make it clearer where one
pixel - one individual dot of colour ends and the next one
begins.

You're free to pan the Magnify window across the picture
by pointing at and selecting the Macintosh-style 'scroll-bars'
along the top and left edges of the window itself. You can make
fine adjustments To the picture using any of the available
colours, and undo them again if they don't look right. Every
possible consideration is given to the keyboard-only user, with
sensibly chosen keys to Switch colours and pan the window.

TEXT

If there's a central theme to Art Studio its thoroughness. Text
entry, an afterthought in most packages, is given the fullest
treatment you could ask for. You can use text m any of three
widths and heights, combining them freely to get a wide range

jge

of shapes.

lour ten car, run left to right or top to bottom, and the
letters can be upright or sideways. There are also bold and
italic options which can produce very useful if rather crude
results. If you want to do anything more complex with text, the
font editor option takes you tnto a whole new league.

When you select font editor you're presented with a whole
fresh screen dedicated to lettering styles. The full character set
of the cm re n I font is displayed! Oh the bottom half of the screen,
while at the top there's a detailed view of the character
currently being edited. Yam can scan through the character set,
scroll an individual character or the whole font in any direction,
make minute alterations to the current character or clear it and
start from scratch.

Several fonts are supplied on the Jlrf Studio disk, and you
can save modified versions of these or your own original fonts
for later use. If you wanted to create foreign alphabets or
scientific symbols for diagrams, you should find this very
simple. OC course most people aren't going to bother with all
this, but most packages wouldn't give you the option m the first
place.

WINDOWS

Once you've created your picture you might well wanl to make
large-scale alterations to it. The Windows pull-down offers a
strong set of special effects based on the idea of a "window' - a
rectangular area of the screen defined by stretching a rubber
box' round it.

Windows can be copied, moved or cleared. They can be
rotated through TO, 130 or 370 degrees, mirrored horizontally
or vertically, and stretched or squashed in either direction. You
can use a window like a paint-brush with the 'smear' Option, or
merge it with the previous contents of the area you're copying it
to. There's also an option to "exclude' one colour, typically the

in iSctkjh five 3*eood»

AMSTRAD ACTION NOVEMBER 1986 37

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38 AMSTRAD ACTION NOVEMBER 1986

SERIOUS SOFTWARE

Windowing needn't involve moving an area of the screen
around. The swap inks and change ink options allow you to alter
the colours of a windowed area, and are particularly powerful
for creating special effects.

Everything possible is done to reduce the effort needed in
defining windows. You can define the whole screen as a
window simply by selecting iWioie screen from the pull-down,
or redefine the previous window using Jasr window, ff you want
to make several copies of the same thing ygu can set the
copying mode to 'multiple'. This means that J fli?SrtJd l f0 automati-
cally redefines the last window after each operation Qli it,
cutting in half the amount of selection you have to do.

FINISHING TOUCHES

The file-handting and printer-dump options show
the thoroughness and ease of use characteristic
of the program as a whole. Fhe printer option
is particularly well thought out, with just
about every feature you could ask for lo cope
with the quirks of different printers.

The manual is excellent, though you
probably won't find you need to refer to it
all that often. For most people its chief
function win be to point out all the
many excellent features which you
could otherwise easily miss. The -

program is so natural and self-explan -
atory that you can work cut most of
the main features just by sitting down
and using it.

' s <*^ , -

'mfSir

'&H£lc

[§.

i :

VERDICT

Of all the many art packages available for the Arnold, this has to
be the best The only real shortcomings are the lack of a mode-0
facility and the need for a 1SEE system; LensJok is an additional
annoyance. These are far outweighed in my book by the
enormous power, ease of use and attention to detail which are
visible in every aspect of the system.

While Art Studio is easy to operate from the keyboard - you
can even define your own keys if you like - or a joystick,
plugging in an A MX or Kemps ton Mouse turns it into an absolute
joy. An awful lot of packages use icons and pull-downs just to be
fashionable but Art Studio makes them earn their keep

If you're after an art package that feels natural, gives good
results quickly and thai you won't outgrow, An Studio must be
the one.

GOOD MEWS

P-A. joy to use.

► Extremely powerful.

► Handle well with keys, joysti
0' mo use -

► Very thorough and detailed, w
lirsl rate manual.

]► Undo makes lor experimentation

jwithuul tears.

\> Can save 'customised' versions

of system to disk.

•>■ Terrific value - all this for £5

less than disk version of

Meibovntt Qtsw ____^_

■■■■ ■ 3

I* No mode IT, so you can only use
four ce louts at once.

£ ► 6S4 owners will iw*d64K of
add-on RAM. and 484 owners will
rued a disk-drive too.
P- Unstofc can lis annoy ing.

to*! AMSTRAD ACTION NOVEMBER 1986 39

UNIT 1 4, WHITE HILL HOUSE, 6 UNION STREET, LUTON, BEDS LU1 3AN
THE UTILITY PEOPLE TEL (0582)411686

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ROM

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40 AMSTRAD ACTION NOVEMBER 1986

SERIOUS SOFTWARE

A day in
the life:

Hour

Arnolds

doAff

You might think the Ancient Capital of
Wcssex an odd place to produce and publ-
i£h one of Earth's leading Amslrad hi-tech
magazines (namely the one in your hands).

However, we do have electricity at the
Old Bam, Arnold is quite happy wherever
plugged in - even if some members- Of the
staff miss the bright Lghls

Wc compose our peerless prose on the
green screens of three red-hot GFC key-
boards - rather awkward since there are
now four full-tiiue on the Amstrad Action
editorial (earn, Bob Wade pecks away on
his G64 while Andy Wilton stares at (he
screen of his 6128. Jim Nagel and Matt
Nicholson (when he's not wearing his PC
Plus hat) fight over the other 6 128, which
sports a second disk drive and a modem,
This machine is usually used to sub -edit
copy written Oh the Others.

On the next desk sirs a permanently
switched-on 4t>4 with the only colour moni-
tor in the building, It has both cassette and
disk, as well as a Maestro stereo attachment
and one of our special-offer Konix joysticks
(advt)- Some game or other is always runn-
ing, whether for review or recreation,

AA started life 14 issues ago with just
the 464 and the 664. Can you imagine the

If you are using your CPC to control
your train set, run your business, play
in a rock'n'roll band or anything else
you might like to tell us about, the
address is A Day in the Life,
Arm? trad Actios, The Old Earn,
Somerton, Somerten, Somerset,
TA11SAM.

That's art invitation to you to
chronicle your experiences With
Arnold, To start it off, we put Our own
chips on the table this, month; Anwtrao 1
Action is done about, by. for Mid an
Arusirad CPCs.

state of Bob':) eyes at deadline, after days

and nights of word-processing on the 464s
low-resolution colour screen? Matt can;
he's writing this issue's Line-up on it now,
having lost fo Jim Who's scribbling this On.
the newer 6 128.

Future Publishing bought three of
these when they first came out in Septem-
ber 1985, just after issue 1 went to press: a
decent keyboard and disk at a price a
young company could afford, The third one
is cornered by Jane Farmer and Di Taver-
ner for correspondence and invoicing -
and for subscription files, which now push
Taswoxd about 10 its limits. The sutaa job
will likely go to the more-powerful PC
when we eventually get one,

Taaword gave way to WordStar as the
work -horse word-processor in the editorial

department as soon as it became available
on 3-inch Amstiad disks. Tasword caused
typesetting nightmares: it insisted on popp-
ing 'hard' carnage-returns into the text file
at (he end of every line on screen. But lines
when lypeset do not break at the same
point as on screen: MAW' is fatter than 'fit 1 .

We prefer Nevnvord, but it needs twin
disks and CP/M Plus (we still have only
version £.2 on most of our machines), so
only this one machine can handle it. It's a
WordStar workalike with the advantage oi
highlighting bold and italic on screen- Jim,
growing a beard waiting for dither of them
to load themselves or load a file or search-
and replace or reformat paragraphs, is not
allowed to yearn yet again for the lightning
speed of Wcrdwisa Plus on that Beeb he
hides at home.

fn all this time we have never managed
to configure the keyboards all the same
way. Press Shift wiih Q on one machine and
the cursor goes to the bottom line of the
screen; on somebody else's you land at the
top. 'Some day, when I'm not so busy. I will
try to find the manual, '

Terrific typography

Somerton may be in the sticks but it does
help thai we are only six miles from one of
the most advanced typesetters in the world;
Wordsrniihs, a.k.a. Anvil Syslems, at Street,
Somerset, iit the shadow of Glastonbury
Tor.

This firm specialises in hammering test
files from fust about any micro's word-
proceaaor into typeset galleys last, There
is no day's delay while someone re-types
everything we've already written, no fur-
ther day spent on proofreading and correc-
tions. A 10-minute drive up the B3151, our
disk goes into the Joyce at Wordsmiths, bits
z;p across a cable to the Xitan Magic Ma-
chine, get translated into typesetter lan-
guage, down another cable to the Laser-
compi bromide paper develops and dries,
a 10-minute sprint back to the Old Barn:
within an hour of writing it's ready for the
art team upstairs.

We don't have to type beastly typeset-
ter code into our copy - the simple instruc-
tion * F3 at the top ot this article tells the
3-/3 (em all it needs to know about font, size,
linespacing, column width, style for head-

ings and so on. We turn on and off
^Sitelics'S and 'Bbeld'B with ihe same
word-processor contmanda thai produce
these effects on a dot-matrix printer. Com-
plex effects like our 'good news, bad news'
can be called up just by typing '= = good".
Wordsmiths' service is good news.

Confounded comms

l mentioned a modem hanging off the sub-
editor's 81 28

There was a time, before my time,
when AA tried transmitting text to Word-
smiths down (he telephone line. The reason
was not to save time - they can't very well
modem the finished bromide back to us, so
we still have to make a round trip. No, in
the prejoyce days their machines did not
fit our disks, so the only link was serial
ports.

Fine in theory, but Amstrad*s poll gave
only 7 bits whereas the 8th is needed to
distinguish soft' carriage-returns (which
we don't want typeset) from 'hard' (which
we do - to end paragraphs).

We were stuck with a cheap (and non-
approved) modem offering only 300 baud.
An article could take 25 minutes to transmit.

Worse, there was only one telephone
line, since the first issues were produced
from Chris Anderson's house. Thus there
was no way of verbally confirming that text
was being received at the other end. Many
a wasted £5 minutes!

Nowadays we have five phone lines
and a good modem - a Nightingale connec-
ted via Pace's serial interface. Cotnmstar
software is instantly available, since it's on
ROM.

Its main use ss receiving copy from
some of our free-lance writers. It's still a
frustrating exercise trying to get one micro
to talk to another. So it seems simpler to
send text first to a Telecom Gold electronic
mailbox and then retrieve it.

Guess what? Gold stufis it hill of hard
carriage-returns. Last week we put
WordStar to work on a search-and-repiacc
and went to lunch. It was still working an
hour and a half later.

The modem business is another case of
'one day. when [ have time," sorting out the
configuration once and for all, It would be
useful to know an Amstrad technical boffin
at Micronet headquarters. ■

RHduttttuit AMSTRAD ACTION NOVEMBER 1986 41

BOOKS

ANATOMY OF THE CPCs

First Publishing (02357 5244), hardback £14.95, 403pp

Like many of First's books these days, this one hails from
German computer-hook publishers Data Becker, Unfortunately
it has lost a certain something on the way Jrom Diisseidorf to
Pangbourne. At ant; point for example, il assurftfl 01 QuU "Hie
SCREEN PACK is slaved lo the TEXT and GRAPHICS PACKS, It
practically serves as their executive/ Later on in the same
section it refers to the action of control code 07 as Khnge]"
rather than the 'Bell" yon might have expected. Minor niggles
perhaps, but clarity's important in technical books. There's no
sense putting extra obstacles in the way of understanding, when
most authors can create plenty of their own.

CONTENT

The book breaks down into three main sections: hardware,
operating system and Basic. The hardware section is not
particularly noteworthy, taking for the most part a chip-by-chip
analysis of the CPC's innards. While this can be quite interest-
ing, it contains very little that Amstrad's firmware guide doesn't
handle better. A fair amount of effort is wasted describing
features that Arnold's design prevents the user from getting at.
Do you really need a book about what Arnold might have been?
To make things worse, there are qu;ta a few omissions and
inaccuracies- The authors claim that they could only find
information on half of the possible RAM configurations on the

6128, even though the missing configurations are at least
partially documented and can in any case be worked out with a
little effort. Why they didn't make that effort I'm not sure, but
galling to pay £13 for a book and then have to work it out
yourself.

They also misunderstand the conditions under which key-
clashes occur, and state boldly that such clashes have no
adverse effects. In fact key-clashes can cause serious problems
in games and make twin joysticks almost useless. It is important
that programs requiring key combinations are written with this
in mind, and the key combinations chosen accordingly,

INTO THE ROMS

The sections on the operating system and Basic are where the
book starts to earn its price. These axe built round near-
disassemblies of the lower and upper ROMs respectively. I say
l near -disassemblies' because there are no details of the actual
source code itself. Rather there are extensive notes on the
precise function and structure of ROM routines.

The idea is that you print out your own disassembly of each

42 NOVEMBER 1986 AMSTRAD ACTION oo^-d.

ROM, and then use the book as a set of notes explaining each
section. If you don't have a disassembler, fear not: there's one in
the appendix for you to type in. If you don't have a printer, on
the other hand, you're probably wondering why the book
doesn't contain a source-code listing as well as the admittedly
comprehensive notes.

I'm not entirely convinced that lack of space is the reason:
most of the time the notes occupy only the left side of each page,
and frequently the hex or source code would explain itself
perfectly well anyhow, I don't know whether legal worries
intervened, but the ROMs are copyright and this may have
something to do with it. Or maybe Schneider owners all have
printers.

One thing even printer owners should ask themselves
about is the actual usefulness of these listings. For starters, they
only cover the 6128 ROMs. While the authors are at pains lo
point out the similarities between the different CPCs, this is

bound to cut down the book's appeal to 664 and more
particularly 464 owners.

More importantly, rummaging around in Arnold's ROMs
has little or no practical value. Routines in the lower ROM can
and should be called via the Ermware jumpblock, as the authors
themselves state at one point. Calling ROM routines directly
makes for compatibility problems, and prevents interception of
operating system calls.

VERDICT

Don't get me wrong - the Basic ROM in particular is a pretty
interesting thing to take a wander around, but I don't really
think the book's curiosity value quite merits the £14.95 asking
price, You're going to need the Firmware Guide if you want to
use the operating-system routines, and the extra information in
this book really isn't worth the money.

BOOKS

GOOD NEWS

► Interesting rn8leit.il on upper
and lower ROMs

AMSTRAD ADVANCED USERS GUIDE

by Daniel Martin

Glentop Publisher* (01-440 4130), paperback £8.50, 160pp

Once again we have a technical volume which hail* from
abroad - France in this case - but there's a marked difference of
emphasis on this one. I can't find fault with the tianaialion quality

% m§

here, but then the book is largely a collection of tables and
diagrams anyway. There's very little straight text to it, and no
form at commentary to take you from one piece of data to the
next.

The first problem with the book is its scope: it's a jack of all
trades and master of none. After two pages on the CPC's
internal architecture, the author launches into a chapter on
Basic. If you own a 484 you'll have most of this - a keyword
Summary, character-set breakdown , Ascii table etc - in your
manual,

E you're a 664 or 6128 owner, on the other hand, you could
reasonably wonder where FILL, COPYCHRS and similar Basic
1,1 keywords have got to. The chapteT and indeed the whole
book are, it turns out, 464-specific with extra 664/6128 inform-
ation relegated to the appendices. It's a bit of a shame then that
the author fails to point this out either in the keywords section,

any other place where the CPGs differ or indeed anywhere at
all. It's even more of a shame that Glentop didn't collate the
book in the obvious way,

It doesn't really matter, because there's no startling new
keyword information here. Where the CPC manuals are despe-
rately short on explanations, so is this book- You want to know
how CALL parameters are passed to machine-code subrout-
ines? That's just too bad, because the book doesn't tell you.

Moving on to the book's meatier chapters we get a
whirlwind tour of Z8G code and the operating system. The
section on machine code is a brief set of notes and a whole load
of tables The flags table is quite handy and the disassembly
charts are very well presented, but serious programmers will
want timing details and these are sadly missing. Overall it could
be handy for reference if you're well up on Z30, but it certainly
won't teach you anything if you aren't.

The operating-system details are probably what most
people will buy the book for, and they are detailed enough to
be usable - but only just. Entry and exit conditions are given
along with some indication of each routine's function. This will
be more than sufficient for TXT OUTPUT, but mosl people will
need a lot more before they can use something like KL [NIT
EVENT. Once again, if you know it already the book could be a
useful reference work. Otherwise you can forget it.

The rest of the book is in much the same vein, consisting in
roughly equal parts of stuff that you already had in your manual
and stuff that you didn't want to know in the first place. If you

want all the tables and charts from your user manual together
with a handy (but rather lightweight) precis of the Firmware
Guide then this book could be for you, but don't expect it to
replace either of them. Personally I would only use it for quick
reference, and it's oiuy just thorough enough for that.

nuiwoMd*, AMSTRAD ACTION NOVEMBER 1986 43

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44 NOVEMBER 1966 AMSTRAD ACTION

Featuring the world's greatest game reviews

MASTERGAME
Revolution (Vortex) ,.. .. — 50

AA RAVES

Deactivators (Ariolasoft).... ........ ....... A&

Split Personalities (Domark) ... ,.,,,.46

Tempest (Efectric Dreams) 4B

OTHER GAMES TESTED

Nexor (Design Design) 46

Pro-Tennis (Loriciete) ,.- .53

Space Shuttle {Aclivision) ....55

Olympiad *S6 (Atlantis) 56

5-a-side Soccer (Mastertronic) 56

Knight Rider (Ocean)... 57

The Apprentice (Mastertrontc) 58

The Vera Cruz Affair (Infogrammes) 59

Con-Quest (Mastertronic) 60

Golden Path (Amsoft).. ........61

PREVIEWS

Prodigy (Electric Dreams) ...62

Trail blazer (Gremlin) .. 62

Third Opinions:

To prevent needless repetition, and to give the old Ed
a rest once in a while, we have only put Third Opinions
on the AA-Raves and Mastergame. Whether a game
gets these titles or not is generally a group decision,
though usually Bob's vote prevails I

VORTEX ON TOP

Distributed by US Gold, Vortex's Revolution earns the
coveted Amstrad Action Mastergame award this month

with simple but gripping action. The graphics are
superb, and controlling that bouncing ball takes some

doing even for the hardened Joystick waggler.

But AA-Raves are t hin on the ground , with only three

on otter this time round. Deactivators from ArioEasoft

sees robots running around disposing bombs and

trying to keep things together before the building

blows, while Domark's Split Personalities is a clever

variat ion of the old Puzzler gam e w it h & top ical sla nt .

Tempest from Electric Dreams is a fast moving version

of the arcade classic.

The TV'based Knight Rider gets a firm thumbs down -

slick to the TV version if you want some action - and

TheVera Cruz Affairwas disappointing. But what are

you doing reading this? Turn the page and get into the

real stuff!

TOP 20 AMSTRAD GAMES

The chart created by AA readers

TTlB

rnonih

rnonfr

% of votes

Tito

Software house

10,2%

GET DEXTER

PSS

8.4%

GREEN BERET

Imagine

S. 2%

BOMBJACK

Elite

8.0%

BOUNDER

Gremlin

6.4%

BATMAN

Ocean

6.3%

COMMANDO

Elite

5.9%

SPINDIZZY

Electric Dreams

5.9%

SORCERY PLUS

VirgirVAmsoft

—

5.2%

KUNG FU MASTER

U S Gold

10.

5.0%

SPELLBOUND

Mastertronic

11.

—

4.9%

THRUST

Firebird

12.

—

4.6%

THING ON A SPRING

Gremlin

13.

4.0%

KANE

Mastertronic

14.

3.4%

GHOSTS'N' GOBLINS

Elite

15.

—

3.4%

KNtGHTTYME

Mastertronic

16.

2.8%

HARVEY HEADBANGER

Firebird

17.

—

3.0%

3DSTARSTRIKEII

Realtime

18.

2.8%

HIGHWAY ENCOUNTER

Vortex

—

2.3%

BATTLE OF BRITAIN

PSS

20.

—

2.1%

WHO DARES WINS II

Alligata

No change to the top
three positions once
again, although Bounder
has bounded over
Batman to take the fourth
place.

Fresh to the charts
come the excellent
cheapie Thrust, which
should work its way up
the charts tairly soon,
Thing on a Spring, the
brilliant Knight Tyme, 3D
Starstrike If, Battle of
Britain and Who Dares
Wins It.

If you think that Get
Dexter is rubbish, or that
Space Invaders is the
best thing since Pong,
then remember * these
Charts are yours. Use the
form on page 96 and you
could change the world.

ACTION TEST

DEACTIVATORS

Ftankror Auclasofi. £5.95 wss. £14 35 disk, joystick or keys

This first game on fitiolasoft's new arcade-
action label looks like being their best so
far on the Arnslrad,

It's set in a building where terrorists
have planted borate an five different Boors
of increasing ske and complexity. You
have to get rid of then-; before they ex-
plode. To d,0 that you use a team of andr
eida within the building who (which?) not
only hav., to cope wiih the bombs but a host
of other pr Dbiems as well .

The screen 13 split info two sections,
the lop part showing two rooms in the game
and the bottom part presenting various

as of information. Each room is shown
in 3D perspective from one side- and Will be
connected to others by doorways, nans-
porter pads or fireman-style poles. The
section below usually shows a map of (be
building with your droids and Ihe bombs
marked.

An icon menu can be activated by the
fire button ro replace the map, providing
four possible actions; change droid, throw
object, loot around, and return to current
droid.

Tme five Doors are of increasing siae,
coniplexjty and number of boubs so the
fits! floor may seem easy, but ihe fifth is a
real monster.

On each floor is a computer which has
several circuit-hoard? missing. They have
to be found by the droids and inserted into
the- computer, inserting a board will causa

one of several things to happen, making
getting rid of the bombs possible or easier,
ft may reveal a doorway, pui on the lights in
a pitch-black room, remove a foicefteld
blocking a route, enable a "iansporter Or
do nothing at all.

Each Hoor has a single esit. Once a
route to it has been cleared you've got to

SECOND OPINION
This one's got a marvellous
combination of brain-taxing strategy
and tough, nerve-racking action. The
differing- gravities, the dud circuit*
boards and ihe enemy droids all pose
challenging problems. But your real
opponent is the clock- It's gripping,
frustrating and very, very mean.

JtW

atari getting the bombs out before their
time-Puses inn out and they explode. To
move eoth bombs and circuit-boards

ve got to pass them between droids,
throwing them through holes in the walls
which the droids can't pass through, This
can be hazardous though because too many
impacts by the bombs and ... kabcom. If
one- bomb explodes you can't pass on to the
next floor, but you can restart on the floor
you've reached.

The use of perspective in the rooms is

important; a three-dimensional environ-
ment haa been created very well The
droids and other objects get larger as (hey
come into lite foreground. Positioning is
important when catching objects. They
move around (heir environment by falling
through holes in the chequered floor . using
transporter pads that connect remote sec-
tions of the building, and by sliding down ._
poles (also, unlike firemen, up poles).

The bombs fuses are Ml at intervals so
you must throw them out in the right order,
which can only be learnt by trial and error. y
If one explodes, the room can't be entered
and anything inside it is annihilated.

Droids. can also be lost 1/ they ran inlet
robot guards who try to follow them, or
fcrcefiekts placed on some doorways.
poles and transporters. Bonus droids are
given for getting enough points; these can
be positioned during a game, a hit like
bringing an a substitute.

The most interesting feature of (he
game is thai rooms are sometimes turned
through 90 or iSQ degrees to be on their
sides or upside-down, This creates some
knotty control problems 'hat can cause a
vita] spin-second's confusion Rooms also
have different levels a| gra-.Tr>' important

NEXOR

Design Design £8.95 cass EM 9& disk joystick or keys

Design Design is usually reknownod lor its
wacky and original games, but I suspect
many fans will be disappointed by this one.
It's an isometric 3D game, not a criftH 5 - in
itself, but one that borrows most of its
features from Batman and doesn't provide
as interesting a game.

The game is set in a military complex
which has been overrun by alien robots.
You have 10 escape wiih a top-secret mas-
ter weapon and its blueprints.

The weapon is split into five pteees and
there arc rwo of each piece. You have to
get together al least one complete device
and try to stop the aliens getting the pieces
of the other one. To escape ihe complex,
which has beer set to self-destruct, yoti also
need a control panel for the matter -transfer
beam and the blueprints of the weapon.

The rooms in the complex, are connec-
ted by doorways, vertical sh&ils and lifts.
Some open out so that you need to try
walking off the front edges of them to see d
there's a connecting room. They re not as
well drawn or as colourful as Batman; the
colour scheme is the same sort as 2112 AD-
Although many of tho objects at first look
unfamiliar . their uses and effect are quickly

Collecting ihe pieces of the weapon is just
like getting the bits of the Batinobile: they
even come together on a separate screen in
(he B&xtie way.

The robot guardians appear in most
rooms but this seems to depend f>n a time
factor or your having visited certain loc-
ations. Some fellow strict movement pai-
lerns while others are more random There
are also static hazards, but all are deadly to

SECOND OPINION
If you 're going to rip off features of 9
gam e then you mtgh t at feast choose
the best ones. Where are all the
devious pozzies, the strange powers
and the floating in the air? The Batman
theme definitely bears repeating but
you need mare variety than this —
which is basically jus! a matter of
wandering around mapping.

the touch- Nothing is new to what's gone
befotif* in Batman and the Ultimate games,
Some of the hazards are Weil drawn includ
iiig moving- head busts of Maggie 3 million'

You'd think you couldn't go wrong by
producing a game similar to Batmatt, Bui
the bila that have been left out are whal
gave the or-gina! its greatness. There
aren't enough complica led puzzles, you
can't float or collect skills, and the graphics
aren't nearly as detailed or colourful. It's
not a bad arcade adventure with quite a lot
to explore and find and many obstacles to
overcome, but it does suffer from lack of
originality by arriving in Batman's wake.

FIRST-DAT TARGET SCORE

3 pieces of weapon

One of ihe
3D rooms

recognisable. Thatcher, nasty apikos. bombs and a little

You can walk, jump and Tall (miles at a fellow ana unicycle.
nme) around the complex, but your jump-
ing action is slow and doesn't get you very
far. You can pick up objects while standing
on them and use them :o g^r through
doorways, to teach oiher inaccHSijibJo
points or to avoid robots As in ifctr/mn you
can't take these objects out of a room.

4€ AMSTRAD ACTION NOVEMBER 1986 Milrtl

ACTION TEST

*hfcn trying to threw things.

The graphics ire the mcst disappoint-
ing part of the came because there's no

attempt to use (he AmstTEC^fi excellent
colour raeilities. Bui she 3D is good, and the
frenetic gamepiay is excellent. You're
constantly battling a tight ems-hinit and

•rig delicate manoeuvres where
one slip and the game is hlswsi.

BW
FIRST-DST TARGET SC0KE
20,000

GSIEEN SOUGEN VIEW
No probi&ms with pfoyingin green

► Tiv» lcveU of tncT*»«ing difficulty.

► & tough test at time «nd reactions.

► Wcll-dpsigned building* to moke
thing? complicated,

► Camoplay leqinros great
conccntxation And quick thinking.

► Excellent featureB Uke twisted iooiwu,
gravity changes and blaekiid-oat room*.

aoT^fwitut^ AM3TRAD ACTION NOVEMBER 1 986 42

ACTION TEST

TEMPEST

Elntfik fhoams, f 5.S9 cass, f 14.99 i(isk, joystick or kftys

tf you road our preview a few months back
you'll know that this classic shoot-em-up is
my personal favourite from the a* cades.
This certainly can't be described as a faith-
ful conversion but it retains most of Ihe
elements of the original and the same mind-
loss but incredibly addictive gameplay.

It's a completely abstract concept that
rakes you into (he world of the- wireways to
face a deadly assortment of alien forces.
These aren't the same as the arcade ver-
sion and some have been renamed but
there are also some nasty additions to keep
you on your toes, The purist won't be
entirely happy with the changes but (here's
still a fabulous game here.

The wireways are made up of SO differ-
ent types of grid and chare are 99 skill
levels, but once yc-u'ie past level 10 things
get very tough. Each grid has a number of
lanes that taper away so wards the centre of
the screen, although the number of lanes,
and therefore the ease with which they can
be covered, varies with each grid. The
grids either wrap around or have closed
ends which yon can't movo oft

At the top of the grid is the spark which
you control and this can move sideways
across the lanes and fixe a hail of bullets
down them. The aliens come onto ihe grid
from the bottom and try to advance to the
top of it where they can run into Ihe spark
and destroy it. The types of alien depends
on the skill level but on higher levels

everything gets thrown ac you,

The moat basic of the enemies are the

flippers which flip across lanes as they
advance up the grid. These can appear on
their own or by shooting spuming squares
called tankers which will produce two of
them, Fuseballa are spiky objects which
move straight up a lane and have to be
dealt with quickly. Pulsars htq straight tines
that behave exactly the same as [useballs
but are harder to see coming.

SECOND OPINION
This is the most mindless tliing I've
ever seen, and I love it, The game just
thiows so much had stuff at you so fast
th a t despera tely fz&mied Muslin g is
the only a nswsi. Good movem en f at> d
tiring technique can help up to a point,
but yew 'ft get a lot further just
hammering the keyboard like crazy,
Bin your joystick and get sapping!

A completely new typo of alien is the
spinning fuseball, which is also released
from destroyed tankers and spins around
the grid very fast, spiralling upwards as il
goes. The last feature is spikes that movo
up the grid Leavinq a trail behind, which
remains if the head is shot. At tho end of ihe
level the spikes grow upwards and you
have to get the spark gut of (he way and to a

clenr Utne before diey reach the top,

You can get an admirably heavy rate of
Eire but you'll need it to deal with the
hordes of enemies, and at nmes you'll have
to be vsry accurate as well.

As a last resort you've got a super -
sapper that wipes out the whole grid,, but
you've only got one of those per grid. You
need to save this for as long as possible
because it's (he only way to gel rid of aliens
that reach the top of the grid. That's a
design flaw which isn't present on the
original but doesn't harm the action too
much.

The vector graphics are quite nicely
done although you do got screen slowdown
when there's a lot going on. The colour and
sound arc reasonable, but to get the best

THIRD OPINION

A superb version of an arcade classic,
No demands on theginy nuUtar, groat
for the jaJre/Ttflut.

SPLIT PERSONALITIES

Dtmidrk. f 8 9G cass. CI 4.95 Aisk r joystick or fcays

Doinark don't have the mosl sparkling of
regulations on the Amstrad with some not
able past turkeys" to their debit. But
they've certainly broken the pattern with
this latest release. It's based on letter-
square or tile-sliding puzzles but takes
them into a whole new dimension with
some very different and entertaining ideas.

The basic idea is to construct a famouE
E&ca from 20 puzsle pieces - within a lime
Umit and while trying to deal with a number
of additional hazards.

ft all takes place on a single screen,
most of which is occupied by the 35-equare
playing area. In the top-left square is a box
from which the various puzzle pieces
emerge. You control a cursor that moves
freely around the grid. When it goes into
the box you can Tit*' a square out onto the
screen.

SECOND OPINION

If you always thought Seagan and
Thatcher needed their heads
rearranging, here s your chance. If
you want to tost your ski ft and reaction
speed against a tough time limit you
can do that too, but be warned: it's
very addictive and incredibly
frustrating.

Once a square is in play you can put
the cursor over it and slide it in any

direction until it hits the wall or another

square. When the cursor :s placed over a
part of the puszie the relevant square lights
gp on a smaller version of the pictuie ir. the
top-right corner of the screen. Thts shows
you where each piece has to end up.

Up to now it just sounds like a simple
tile-sliding puzzle, but then* are many
complications . On three sides of the grid
there are sliding doors: squares can be
pushed through thorn when open so that
they have to be retrieved from the box.
There are also cracks that may appear in
the walls: if you throw a square into one it
bounces back,

Apart from Ihe picture squares there
are also a number of other items thai may
be thrown out of the box, some good for
you and others a real problem. A good old-
fashioned bomb, for instance, fuse sizzling.
If one oE these is thrown out you have
five seconds to chuck il out door or to throw
it into a water-tap, Ihe latter action getting
you healthy bonus points. If a bullet, do
those points by throwing it into a gun. II
diamonds, fling two together and extend
your rime limit.

Characters also have objects specific lo
themselves that when thrown together give
bonus points. These you learn liy OX]
mentation but it's usually obvious whai will
work with what. There are also dangerous
:tams like matches and fuel which don't go
very well together.

You need to go for all ihe bonuses you
can because time is very short (you'll often
need those diamonds) and an extra life la
given only at 100,000 points.

The pictures are quite well drawn and
you should have no trouble recognising all
tho characters, They range from politicians,
computer-industry figures and film stars to
the royal family and pop stars - a very
mixed bunch,

Lsfaz levels gst really tough: doors and
cracks bocOmc more awkward and Squares
bounce off each other if they don't have a
wall or another block behind them when
they collide

FIRST-DAY TAHGET SCORE

2&,Q0D

cem fhfj

be*

ACTION TEST

GREEN SCREEN VIEW
The grid c»ff in? very difficult to see on
one or two levels, and that means yoa
can get into real problems with
pulsars. It's still playable, but do you
really need this much frustration?

► Good vector graphics and lota of
them.

► Fast and mindless blasting at all
times.

► A variety of nasty aliens to deal with.

Different grids requiring different
approaches.

► Becomti ft really tough challengs;.

from il you need to pUy m a dark soom w;!b
a couple of stereo speakers turned up loud.
Js's brash, it's mindless, fast and fiincua
- you'll love it.

FIRST-DAY TARGET SCORE

30,000

Not a faithful conversion so fans of the
original may minis some things.
P Liable to cause aatrome wrist cramp.

GRAPHICS

SONIC S

GRAB FACTOR

STAYING PCWER

A A RATING

plenty of levels 10 keep you going and
you'll find it tough not to come back for
more every lime.

GREEN SCREEN VIEW
There are real visibility problems on
some puzzle pieces, but the key at the
top olilic screen means that it's alii]
playahlc-

Recognisable pictures of the famous.

Very tasting and addictive gameplay.

Lots of surprise features like bombs
and diamonds.

Increasing difficulty with new
feature* being added.

Needs concentration and quick
thinking under pressure.

Bombs can pop up in an impossible
situation.

GRAPHICS

SON l«

GRAB FACTOR

STAVING POWER

REVOLUTION

Vortex/US Gold, £9.95 cass. £14.95 disk

No : it's rtot a film-licensing deal of that
mega-flop stalling Al Pacino, but a highly
original arcade game thai will provide
many more hours of enjoyment than any
silver-screen epic. It's in a grand tradition
of Vortex games renowned for their origin-
ality, graphics and gameplay.

The game concept and task are ex-
tremely simple. You control a bouncing
ball; its sole mission is to nil lit tie red cubes,

It has to bounce through eight levels of
ptey. In isometric 3D you. see each level
rather like a floor of thick floating tiles - a
grid of blue blocks suspended in black
space, Don' I bounce down the cracks!

Somewhere on each grid are four
puzzles. You solve them simply by touching
one red cube with the ball and then, within
a time limit, touching the second.

SECOND OPINION

Those terribly clever Vortex people
ha vb done it again This one's oven
simpler than Highway Encounter, t-ven
more fiendishly addictive and a whole
lot more colourful. The game task is
huge, but yoa '11 joe hooked so
completely yoa '11 hardly notice,
Pushes your brains and your skills as
far as they'll go,

To start with you'll need to get the hang
of controlling the ball crucial to solving
the puzzles. Pushing in any direction
bounces the ball that way, But be careful
about hitting diagonals on a joystick, and
remember that the ball won't change direc-
tion, suddenly or in mid-flight.

Controlling the ball's height of bounce
is the most important thing, and this is very
cleverly done. You control the energy put
into the bounce: you can set it at five
different levels using the fire button. In-
crease or decrease it* energy (it shows on
a little meter be (torn-left) and the ball
gradually bounces higher or lower corre-
spondingly, Put in no energy and the bail
will eventually just roll around the floor:
with maximum power it can leap.

You have to be patient and accurate at
times in order to get just the right bounce.
Once you've got the hang of the bouncing
it's great fun to use and watch.

The ball can fall down the gaps be-
tween the tiles and be lost forever; the
same fate awaits if you bounce off the grid
entirely.

There are other dangers lurking amid
the puzzles. A nasty breed of spiky ball
disintegrates yours if you touch it. Unidenti-
fied spinning objects (USQsT) fly randomly
about the grid; if they bump you in mid-
jump (hey can throw you off into thin air.

Most of the puzzles look straightfor-
ward, but you goon find that controlling the
ball accurately and avoiding dangers isn't
easy when you're trying to do it quickly -

particularly because most puzzles have
complications. These are two types of
square on the floor, behaving like trampo-
line or glue: one immediately sets your

THIRD OPINION
It takes some time to- get used to
controlling the bouncing ball - hitting
the diagonal is particularly difficult
and needs a goad joystick: - but the
puzzles are fiendish and the graphics
something else. Revolution has been
compered foSpindizzy, bat it is a
completely different game really and a
v'talpart of your collection!

big trouble. These squares arm vital for
solving some puzzles but you. really have to
take care around them.

The four puzzles on each level all have
to be completed within an overall time
limit, before you return to your starting
point and go to the nest level. You land on
levels in a random order so you get to see
all of them even without completing the
game. This doesn't make the game any
easier - as. you move to the next IeveI T the
time between touching a puzzle's two red
cubes is reduced. To succeed, you have to
find the most efficient
route of getting be-
tween them.

j limping energy and height to maximum,
and the other to zero. Furthermore they
have a repelling effect: they elide or launch
you off in a direction that might put you in

50 AMSTRAD ACTION NOVEMBER 1986 tc. Lazry, r™ back

ACTION TEST

TiH coi dof l«l

On* of tiw I *o
cube* you have >o
hi)

t^i (hTj, if'i

Tb« i*fl jvmjj

ime

ftMtgtvnyouc

*udd*<i lioosl

Th.i kilt a ji/mp

FQIST-D&r TARGET SCORE
20,000

Despite its simple concept and
graphics, (he game plays superbly and
looks good. To star: with you can complete
some puzzles just by quick reactions and a
bit of luck, but as you progress you have to
work out the beit routes and get more
proficient At control and accuracy. The
bouncing action of the ball is superb and
the degree of difficulty just right to get you
hooked - aa well as to provide a long-
lasting challenge .

Wonderfully original concept.

Excellent bouncing action in 3D.

Puiilaa need thought and goad
control.

Simple but effective graphics.

Increasing difficulty puts stress on
skill -

Good Yuiety of puzzles.

Diagonal controls can be lough.

GREEN SCREEN VIEW
Less interesting to look arm&ybe, but
every hit as ptayabfe. The loading
screen 's the only thing thai really
suffers.

GRAPHICS

72%
46%

90%

wmrnm

SDNICS

GRAB FACTOR

:^: : :-:*;fcS£8&8fflffl

STAYING POWtR

::v:v:-:-3&888888888

A A HATING

■■■"r-<4wy5B5SS9DBSK

s M i-r.^.b V Ms M ig««AMSTKAD ACTION NOVEMBER 1886 51

▲

mm&f&

spa/in

*9**

« - ' '

■■st

£^^-Z&2f*

rp- ■'"*■■ 4

^H S3

1 , xf^M

****

"&]

SPECTRUM

£7.95

EA.

COMMODORE 64

£8.95

AMSTRAD

7h§ coin-op kings from Konaml each game an all action arcade hit now
available for your home computer Treat your computer to only the best game
=f=^7=Wf - crown it with the arcade kings!

Jrmagine Software f 1984; Umited • 6 Central Street- Manchester M2SNS Tel. 061 8343939 ■ Teiex: 669977

ACTION

PRO-TENNIS

Liiiii.ii>!!, Auivisicin. f S 99 cass. £14 19 (Hsit. joystick Uf keys

The only other tennis simulation of any note
is Match Point, That was pretty good - it*
main problem wee that it was just too tough.
Pro-tennis can put up an equally good
battle but is a bil more player -friendly,
giving some helpful options.

The court is viewed from above one
end, flanked by crowds who always gel
excited at the end of a game. You can play
against the computer or another player 01
watch an exhausting demo game. On either
of its two skill levels the- computer is very
difficult to beat since it doesn't make many
unforced errors - you, however, actually
have to hit winners.

You can play the game in two modes,
which make the action easy to get into. The
automatic mode jual gives you the job of
positioning the player to hit the ball so thai
you don't have to worry about the timing of
hitting the ball - that's done for you. The
manual mode gives you (hat extra job of
liming the stroke and makes the computer
that much harder to beat.

SECOND OPINION

The automatic mode really does make
tins a simple piece of fun. It captures a
lot of the atmosphere of tennis while
staying very playable. I'm not really a
tan of Sports simulations, but this
rfh n look

■

You can choose lioin thrco types ot
playing surface' day. grass and hard court.
The surface won't initially moke much dif
ference to you but affects the bounce of the
ball and speed of the players Matches can

be played ovei one, three or Eve seta;
these can last a very long while because
very lengthy rallies are the rule.

The service occurs automatically but
can be directed toward one side of the
service court. Once the ball i* in play the
computer is quite happy to sit back and
play from the baseline. This means that to
win you need to gel to the net and either hit
outright winners (passing shots, and lobs if
he cornea in.) or force him into lobbing the
ball over the baseline. The danger is that
he will hit a lob in and you won't be able to
get back to it in time.

Although the rallies can be
against the computer, they can also be
quite exciting if you're on the net because
of the continual effort needed to get the bail
back and to try to hit winners as well. The
two-player action is of course even more
exciting with much more unpredictable
play.

The graphics aren't particularly impre
save: the players are small and the strokes
indistinci. But the action is compulsive. The
automatic option and the different courts
bring a bit of variety Most importantly,
you'll get a good contest out of it

FIRST-DAY TARGET SCORE

Take a set off the computer

GOOD

Tough computer opponent.
P- Helpful automatic option.
> Ball speed varies a lot from fast drives
to slow lobs.

-- more friendly and playable than
Match Point

Rail lea with the computer can be very
long.

»■ If you've already got March Point it
doesn't offer much more.

AH thtt courts look like grass, b
othe i -te's no problem ,

GRAPHICS

51%
37%
7S%
T5%
76%

M - 1 i Pill

>:■:■»»

SQNICS

GRAB FACTOR

STAVING POWER

A A RATING

WW..—T? AMSTRAD ACTON NOVEMBER 1986 53

Daringly Original Arcade Adventure, it's What You've Come

"S3

£7.95

TSRN1J)

£7.98

Available now for Commodore 64 and
available soon for Spectrum 48.128 and

Amstrad.

I ■•Slid it 1 S»p«wf*d Trtdi M»it..jl (miih Tt*ceTmo»M»iiifltp(c.

rrrr^cBfrSd

FIREBIRD SOfTWAfiE
FIRST FUOOfl. W-T6 NEW DxFQflD ST.. LOUDON WC1 A VPS

MAL ORDER

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+ Hmr*n aPHgHttft SO«TrtAttf As

m«i«((iv(T«n!B(«»s<

HAIL ORDER AUHTC KAV. 'FAEEPOST FMEWRO. FWST
R.DOH. M-T8 N£w GKFOM> ST.- UCWOON WC1A IPS.

"No ^l^HWOJJir*tfj

ACTION TEST

SPACE SHUTTLE

Aciivtsiori. £9.94 cass. £14.99 disk, keys 01
joystick with keys

NASA may not be allowed to ge" the real
thing oil (Ik ground ai the r.-.a :iu:t.!. bill yor.
can lake the shuttle Discovery up for a flight
or two with this simulation by Sieve Kitchen.
It doesn't give you ihe sort of freedom thai
ordinary flight simulators have, It sets you a
tough mission task: fly the shuttle to a strict
flightpian. launch and dock with satellites.

You can choose from three type? of
flight number one is a demo thai shows you
exactly how a perfect flight should pro-
ceed; number two gives you control of
most of the shuttle while the computer
gives invaluable aid to the beginner; num-
ber three leaves you on your own to solve
all the problems.

flight controls. The graphics are quite bare
except for the payload-bay scene. The
sound consists purely of engine noise and
warning signals. As a simulator it 'a pretty
good, but as a game it doesn't really have
enough variety to keep you interested for
long.

FIRST-DAY TARGET SCORE
Complete flight 2

► You've always got plasty to do.

► Good picture of (be pay lead bay,

► Docking with satellites provides the
lasting challenge.

SECOND OPINION

Morbid curiosity aside, there 's not a.
lot to recommend this one. It fen 't
realistic enough to bo a convincing
simulator, but the Jack of freedom
means it's not much of a game either.
A worthy effort, but I just found it too
dull.

► No variety once you've Learnt the

mission.

*■ No freedom of action; you just have te

follow the flight plan.

Your view is from the shuttle's cockpit ,
with your essential instrumentation and
onboard computer display, You atari on Ihe
launchpad; the first task is to get the shuttle
off the ground. A detailed launch guide
tells you exactly how to do this step by
step, but m the heal of the moment when
you're under pressure you might forget
something.

Once in the air you need to follow a
trajectory that the computer has plotted to
get you into space, Once you're up
there you've got to achieve a stable
orbit before you eaxi launch the
satellite. Once again you're
given plenty of information
on what to do, so that just
following the instructions
should get you through.

New comes the fun part:
launching the satellite. You are
treated to an excellent view of the
payload bay as the satellite spins out of
it and then round to the front of the shuttle
and off into orbit.

Having got lid of one satellite you can
go dock with some others, which enhances
your rating when you get back to Earth,
You can dock with as many as you Like, but
each successive one gets harder lo do.

GREEN SCREEN VIEW

Hoprebioma with visibility, but it still
domtnttook very retlistic-

Once you're bored with whuzwg
around the Earth you can re enter and land
at Edwards Air Force base, Once again
you're given detailed ins (ructions on how
to get down and a trajectory to follow as
you descend to the runway- When you get
within range the runway appears in the
view and you glide in for a landing,

It will take a bit of practice before you
can do the whole mission properly but it's
quite easy to get started and to know the

you just have to keep kicking and it wiU go
in. The opposition will do likewise. To stop
them you just have to run past them, turn
around and run head-on into the relevant
player, kicking wildly.

r , - ■■■■

SECOND OPINION

Dear me. Once upon a time,
Mastertroiuc had a reputation for
producing cheap trash. Through hard
work and strict quality-con trol they
cleared their name and showed the
.world that cheap needn't mean nasty.
Another game as miserably had as this
One though, another one as
unspeakably awful, and they'll be
right back to square one.

FIVE-A-SIDE SOCCER

Mailertruiiic £3 .93 cass. icystick or kcvs

Masteitronic have been producing some
excellent games lateiy arid I suppose the
run hod to come to an end somewhere. This
is it. As football games go it's one of the
wo; si I've seen. II doesn't even deserve a
99p pncetag. newer mind the £2.39 it's
costing.

It folio ws the familiar pattern of oiher
football games, but with less impressive
graphics and gameplay. The pitch is
viewed from the side and is composed of
three screens, a goal at each end. The
teams have five players each fgeema log-
ical for five^a-aide football) with one player
as the goalkeeper, who can't be moved out
of the bo* around the goaL

Vow control one player. You can either
leave it to the computer to choose which or
select 1 turn yourself by~ cycling through the
players on Screen. You can compete either
against the computer At against 3 male.
Eiiher way mere isn't much variety to the
playing action The computer" plays very
predictably; although it will score goals
yon can easily pul away more.

The pStch is narrow. Because the rules
are Sva-a T aide there aren't any comers,
throw-ins or any other set pieces-

The gameplay consists of getting
behind the ball and booting it forward a
few tunes; if you're lined up with- the goal

If enemy action gets close to the goal,
control switches to your keeper but its
usually loo late to do anything abouta goal
being scored.

OiLir>k)f grap+iki

and bad

gcmijpfay

The graphics are chunky and garish
and the gameplay very monotonous. A
rather sorry product, and the sooner it's
forgotten the better.

FfRST-DftY TARGET SCORE
Beat the computer by 5 goals

GREEN SCREEN VIEW
Visibility problems are really neither
here not there- [mean, the game is a
complete hole in the ground,

P- There'll be a lot of goals scored.

► Chunky, garish graphics,

*■ Predictable computer oppatippf

► Boring gameplay.

*■ No other options or features except a
two-player game

^H-' '.'."

18%

Wwm

SONUS

30%
17%
1S%

GRAB FACTOR

STAYING POWER

A A RATING

11%

OLYMPIAD '86

Atlantis. £2.91 cass. jtrittcti or lt«ys

Here's yet
game L but c:

Waggling or It

five sports; weigh!

tld-eveni spcrtt
doesn't involve any.

-.shing. ft tea lures
fting. canoe-mo;, 100

metres, skeet-shooong and discus. I don't
think most snac: .'es are going to

find much here I :

Weight^:: 'he first event. You

have to lift gradually heavier weights to
leach a qualifying level ". .3 poorly

drawn and inhimitfii Youi method of ma*
long lifts is even worse: a potntei spins
around a ore. bottom of the screen,

and when it's pointing straight tip you have
to press Fire Get « right and it s a

good lift, miss it and you lose one of your
three lives Ajs the weighs gel heavier ihe
pointer .

SECOND OPINION

It's a funny old nnsin ess, this
computer-games Jark, Just when you

.-: you 've seen the worst game
imaginable, someone goes and brings
out something much, much worse.
You '11 laugh at the graphics on this
one, weep at the waste of three quid
and fall asleep over the gameplay, I'd
have preferred a waggling game, and
1 hate waggling games-

The second event, canoeing, has better
graphics but familiar very simple game-
piay Your canoe (a kayak, actually) ap-
pears m ihe middle of the screen, vie .
from above, and the occupant paddles with
just two frames of animation Rocks appear
at she bottom o( ihe screen, and move up it
You have 10 move left and right to avoid

56 NOVEMBER 1 986 AMSTRAD ACTION ^^--1™

ACTION TEST

them If you hit a rock a life is lost, other-
wise you have to cocnplete a certain dis-
tance dawn the course.

The I0O metres is r.cxt. Itere the anim-
ation is batter but the gameplay just as bad.
Tte run stays- in one spot on (he screen
while the crowd jerks by behind him. To
mate hint run faster you have to press Fife
in conjunction with a spinning pointer, as in
event our, bill this time you have to keep
repeating il to keep the speed up arid make
the qualifying time.

The fourth event is skee! -snooting.
although by this lime you'll probably want
to do a bit of author-shooting. A cursor and
two trees appear on set een and from (he
bottom of the screen a grey brick will spin
up. You have (o put the cursor over it and
press Fire to destroy it before it flies off
strreer. A set number of ske<2« have to be
■hoi, but hiiting more gets you more points

The final event (heavy Sigh of rebel) is
the discus. You first have to sel the power

of the throw with (he familiar spinning
pointer and then the; angle by stopping a'
number thai gradually increases. This lime
a waits spinning brick moves across screen
and you hope it pas$ftB the ' qualifying
distance.

Then tt's back to .the firs! event. Go
tlirough it ail again with the qualifying
getting tougher until you lose all three
hves.

The graphics are diatfuil, the soiinti is
hopeless, the gamcplay is Horribly simple
and even al &3 it's a waste of money. The
fact that i's budget software is i\o tonger an
excuse for bad product like this.

Y TARGET SCORE

GREEN SCREEN VIEW
It you shelled out three quid for this, I
should think green is the word,

► Jt'S cheap.

► It's guile tough as you progress,

* The graphic* are bad.
► Vary little flound.
*■ Very aim pie gameplay .
*■ Little variety tn your task.

»:■:-.'■:■:

GRAPHICS

33%
16%
30*/.
18%
19%

SONICS

GfUfl FACTOR

STAYING POWEfl

A A RATING

KNIGHT RIDER

Ocean, ftlJB css-s. jovslirk or keys

hope you haven't been holding your breath
Tor this one because KITT appears to have
been worked on in Ocean's garag*
quite a while. Now he and hii do-gooder
driver are out, but when you get a look at
the game you re going to wish they'd
scrapped him and cubed him in a metal-
crusher.

The game begins with our eager TV
heroes revving to go m Atlanta. They can
choose one of four dastardly plots to 'oil
within a ftme limit. A network of roads
connects several major citiea in the Excited
States, and at each city there is an oper-
ational base of some kind. These consist of
a single screen On visiting the one at
Atlanta you Tl discover where you need to
go first.

You choosB a. city oft a menu and then
have to drive there. The view is- from. the
driver's seat '- the only things- you'll see
while travelling between cities are enemy
heUcopters and the toad.

SECOND OPINION
It really looked at one point as if this
one wasn't going to come out at a}}, but
no such lack. If this was a budget game
it would be mjserablQ value lor
money. There's almost nothing to it,
and what there is looks dated and
pQprly executed. I'm amazed that
Ocean have the gall to charge mosey
for this at all, but £8.95 is just comical.

This is the really exciting bit: the
guards can shoot at you or touch you to
knock a lot otl the lime limit. The guards at
some bases will home in on yot ; because
ihey're "trained killers' - which means they
aren't wearing blinkers, unlike the rest of
them who keep to movement patterns as
you go straight by them, merely letting
loose the odd bullet if you're in then path.

If you get to she other side of the room
you're given the next location to go ro. If
you. can resist the overwhelming urge to hit
the reset keys, you're' off on another car
ride over a featureless highway

The graphics are bad, the in-game
Sound is bad, the Collision detection at
£*e£Gs. is Jwusyi - the- gamfeplay t$ boring afid
as licensing deals go this is the wcrs:

FIRST DAT TARGET SCORE

Stay awake

You can choose to drive or shoot helic-
opters, while KITT performs the Other joh.

est to drive yourself And lei KITT da
looting, since you can drive twice as
fast and he'll probably shoot straighter.

Driving is just a matter of accelerating
as hard as possible arid steering around the
•occasional incredibly predictable bend, It
takes no skill. at ali Evert damage caused
by missiles from the helicopters and bumps
iide of the road doefiti't liven up
the proceedings; IF you do want to shoot
helicopters it's just. a mistier of guiding a
ji aromxi the screen arid tir;iig an
isivisibly laser.

Aiier getting 'bbred at the wheal for an
eternity yoii arrive- at the. city and can enter
the operational base there. You now control
a figure 'viewed 'from above who has to get
from one side of a room to the other,
avoiding contact with the guards therfl^

GREEN SCREEN VIEW
You can still see well enough to play,
I'm afraid.

1 tiked the title tune.

E W

►■ Unimpressive graphics.

► Bad collision detection at bases,
*■ Monotonous gameplay,

K The worst-eve* licensing deal.

> You have to waft for very slow-
scrolling messages,

GRAPHICS

SONICS

GRAB FACTOR

STAVING POWER

A A HATING

^ ■**>*. AMSTRAS AQTION NOVEMBER 1986 52

ACTION TEST

THE APPRENTICE

Ntostcitromc. [( 99 cans joystick or keys

The name of the game might be enough to
give away the origin of this game but you'll
be in no doubt as soon as you start playing.
The classic Sorcery was obviously the in-
spiration. Even though this game (by James
Higgins) isn't as good as the original it has a
lotto offer at £1.99.

You play an ^prentice wizard who's
made a real hash of a nasty spell, and has to
rectify it by collecting 10 rings. To collect
each ring you 'H need a little bit of help from
a friendly wizard, who requires a specific
object if he's going to help you out. If you
can find the object and get it to the wizard,

then he opens up a section of the game
where a ring can be found.

The screens axe very reminiscent of
Sorcery, but the graphics aren't as at-
mospheric or as fast-moving. There aren't
any doors either so the apprentice just
moves oS the edge of one screen and onto
another. The apprentice moves about
screen rather slowly but you can fly and
walk him anywhere on screen.

SECOND OPINION
There's an awful lot to explore here,
but not a great deal of incentive to do
so, The graphics are okay, hut the
gameplay just sort oi plods along. The
nameitiAy suggest comparisons with
Sorcery bat the action very deiinit&iy
doesit T t. Still, it s cheap I suppose.

There are plenty of threats to your
meagre lives including arrows, skulls,
spinning stars, birds, dragons and demons.
These all follow movement patterns and
car. be either avoided or btasied with your
limited supply of hghtrungbolts. However
that measure is only temporary: if you re-
enter the screen the monsters will have
reappeared.

/ mi-

The objects that allow the wizards to
cast a magic spell include a treasure chest,
flag, gold key and horseshoe. To find out
which object works with which wizard you
just have to drop it while standing on the
same spot with him. If nothing happens
you've got the wrong object. The right
object wiD cause a section of the scenery to
slide away and you can go through it to
some new screens where a ring will be
found.

You can also remove sections of the
scenery with a special scroll that can take
out a chunk ol wall. This will make it
possible or easier to get to an area of the
game or an object. These need to be used
sparingly, of course, just in case you come
up against a real impasse.

All ten rings have to be recovered
within a time limit, but this is quite gener-
ous and should give you ample time.

An apprentice

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58 NOVEMBER 1986 AMSTRAD ACTION r»MVii*ni*.

ACTION TEST

Much more of a problem is landing on
a screen to find a monster headed straight
for yon or right on top of you. This can put
you into an infinite death loop that can ruin
a lot of hard work.

Even though the game isn't original it's
very competently done and provides an
excellent challenge for any arcade adven-
ture rs who liked Sorcery. Its major pro-
blem is 3peedthe action is quite sedate.
Despite that you've still got a lot to cope
with and have to concentrate hard.

FIRST-DAY TARGET SCORE
10,000

GREEN SCREEN VIEW
Ugly but visible.

\ ► Good colourful graphics and
monsters.

► Large, well designed playing area.

► 10 wizards take quite a hit of finding,

► Disappearing sections of scenery are
good.

► Action is quite slow.
►* Not very original.

graph icsrytTi

1 .

S0NICS

54%
78%'

33%
16%

GRAB FACTOR

STAYING POWER

A A HATING

±?Z&ffi

THE VERA CRUZ
AFFAIR

Intagrnmts. £9.95 cass. £14.95 disk, ke^s trnlv

The latest French import puts you in the

role of a gendarme investigating a suspici-
ous death, which is first thought to he
suicide but soon looks far more sinister.
The game loads in two sections, the first
one giving you a chance !o examine the
scene of the incident and the second to
investigate using the police computer
network:

The scene of the supposed suicide is a
single, macabre but detailed and well
drawn screen, dominated by the dead
body of Mile Vera Cruz, Scattered around
on the floor and furniture are various ob-
jects and clues that have to be examined.
You control a cursor on the screen that can
be placed over the various objects, which
can then be examined in greater detail to
provide information that may be a clue or
may be misleading.

You 11 need to note down on paper all
of the information you find because you
can' I look at it again once you leave this

are not exactly over- helpful on this mailer
either, a situation exacerbated by their
translation from, the original French.

section of the program. Make sure you
examine everything you can because even
the smallest object may reveal something
interesting.

When you're finished, the second part
of the program has to be loaded, This takes
you to your office, where you can com-
municate with all the other police and
judicial services through the Diamond
Computer Network.

You have six main options while using
me computer: send a message* print out a
screen (if you've got a printer), see a
statement from a witness, compare
evidence, make an examination, and arrest
[he guilty party.

SECOND OPINION

I'm sure (here's a good game in here,
but poor translations and general
unfjicndlin ess mean it's just too
difficult to get at. Even the most patient
of detectives can only pat up with
'Addressee inapplicable' so many
times before he hands in his badge,

The other options are much easier to
use since they require less composition of
messages. There are still hitches though:
when performing an examination, for
example, you are told you can make a
'graphological' examination, but you're not
told exactly haw to do that.

If you can penetrate these problems
there is a very good game underneath with
plenty of nice touches- There are the facial
pictures of suspects, the need lor deductive
reasoning and of course the need for a
policeman's perseverance. It's a shame that
this is marred by the impenetrable replies
of the computer to so many enquiries,
"addressee not applicable' and 'without in-
terest". A good game, but one that could do
with being a lot more helpful and user-
friendly.

Messages can be sent to various bran-
ches of the local and national police,
piisons and judicial information centres, in
an attempt to gain useful information. Or
messages can be used to find out further
details on an individual who may be known
to one of the other services. Or police
elsewhere on the network may know some-
thing of a particular piece of evidence.

The main problem with these commun-
ications is that you have to get only one part
of the message wrong and you always get
the same message 'Addressee not applic-
able'. This moans you don't know whether
you made a typing mistake, used the wrong
form of message or the service really had
no information on the question.

Consequently you can be fishing about
in the dark not knowing what's going on,
purely because you can't communicate with
the computer properly. The instructions

GREEN SCREEN VIE W
Still ptey&bte, and still unpenetrable.

GOOD W E W S

► & difficult case that takes tome
solving.

*■ Niuo touches like the suspects' faces.

► Needs a lot of thought.

► Very unhelpful responses to
unproductive questions.

►■ Translation is unhelpful in places.

► Takes a tot of getting into.

mmssm

mmm
mmm

GRAPHICS

70%
14%

53%
71%

64%

SONICS

GRAB FACTOR

STAYING, POWER

A A RATING

itotojitengi^ AMSTRAD ACTION NOVEMBER 1986 59

ACTION TEST

CON-QUEST

MasferlrQflit. 12 38 cess, joystick or keys

At first sight you might be templed to write
this off as just another game where you run
round umpteen screens picking up some
things and shooting monsters. However a
closer look reveals more depth to the game
(by Derek Brewster), with lots of different
objects that can be examined and used in
different ways.

The action takes place in a castle which
has bean occupied by the demon Grell and
his monstrous minions. Your task as the
cute character Oscar is to rid the castle of
Grell, but you've got to do a Jot of explor-
ing and use many objects to achieve that,

The casllea rooms are shown in 3D
from one side. Most of them have lurnilure,
wall decorations and of course monsters.
Meet of it is well drawn, but suffers from an
unimaginative use of colour: each charac-
ter, object and furniture item is just a single
colour. There's a maximum of three mon-
sters to a room and they whizz about
randomly, sapping your energy when they
touch you.

You can combat the creatures with
weapons that you find, including a boome-
ranging axe and a magic wand, but you'll

need some knowledge as well before you
can use the wand Once you've picked up
an object you can use three other options
on an icon menu at the bottom of the screen:
drop it again, examine or use it. Sometimes
examining it will reveal some useful in-

SKCOND OPINION
This ones fairly good value and
there s a lot fo see, but it's *fl pretty
(treaty stuff. Th&r& is only so much
you can do with this kind oi
exploration/collection effort. Weil
enough presented, but nothing at all
original or exciting.

formation; whan trying to use it you may be
told you don't yet know how to.

Usually you can carry up to five items
and be able to examine and use any of
them. There is a globe of invulnerability -

yau can store Up 10 nine items in it and
trundle it around the rooms, but you i-int

The graphics are the most disappointing
thing about the game.

The gameplay. however, has a lot to
offer in the way of exploring, shooting and
the odd bit of puzzling. There's nothing
very original here but this type of game
hasn't appeared so much on the Amatrad as
on other machines, so a lot ol you should
enjoy it,

FIRST-DAY TARGET SCORE

40%

GREEK SCREEN VIEW
Visible en&ugh, though the odd bit of
htti&-oto"bl6ck cause* ptoblems,

K_9 Bil Eifl El

E^^Q

► Quite a large playing area*

► Good use of Icons within the game,

► Lots of objects to use.

h- Good combination, of exploring,
shooting and puzzling.

j^^^fl ■ ,► - ' -M W

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use objects from inside it so you won't be
able to kill oS creatures on your way.

There are many of the standard
arcade-adventure features to the game like
keys that will unlock doors to reveal more
of the playing area. There are also healing
and poison potions, so be sure you know
which is which.

Theie isn t much sound in the game but
what effects there are are nicely done.
Some of them appear to pop up during play
for no apparent reason, but the random
twiddles and bloops are quite pleasing.

► Unimpressive use of colour.

► Not much variety In the gameplay .

| SMPWCS

SONICS

GRAB FACTOR

STAYIWG FQWta

A A HATING

60 AMSTRAD ACTION NOVEMBER 1986 mm^m.

ACTION TEST

GOLDEN PATH

Amfiflft, £ 12.95 disk, key; 01 joy slick with keys

There still aren't tog many disk-Only games
around, despite the huge success of the
6138, Tfcis effort from Amsoft (written by
Magic Logic) is set in [ho Orient, where a
monk has to achieve enlightenment by
lighting mcense before the great Buddha in
a golden temple. To achieve that you've got
to solve a fait few arcade-adventure pro-
blems ^nd explore ihe delightfully drawn
scenery of the far east.

The name of the game derives from the
yellow line that tie monk: follows through
the screens in the game as they wind up
find down the hills and to various locations.
You can't deviate off the line, but there are
junctions where it forks or loads into build-
ings. Your life as a monk start* as a young
man and the quest has lo be completed
before you age loo much and become an
ex-monk that has ceased 10 be.

As you wander along the path you'll
encounter animals and people who may
block it and have to be dealt with somehow-
This could be by giving
them an object or

SECOND OPINION

Well what do you know - it's a game
that's unplayable in a whole now way.
I'm just amazed at the nerve it must
take to market this thing. There may
be some interesting puzzles in here,
but nobody 's going to have the
patience to get anywhere with tflgftt,
Dazztmgly stupid.

by fighting them - the only way to find out
is lo try it. There are also mechanisms that
can be used, but again you may need Ihe
fight Object Or person to activate it.

Objects you find can be carried, stored
in one of your four pockets, or even thrown
at something. You've also got the ability lo
jump, duck, block, punch and push you
can also experiment on people and objects.
Many of the animals and people will attack
you: unless you're prepared with an
adequate defence you'll lose a life. (Pre-
sumably as a Buddhist you don't kill
Others.)

Making your way along the path isn't
always easy. It disappears in places, and

A monlt't l''r H net

□ ho pp v urn?

you have to search for possible rou tea-
Far mora annoying is the way the disk-
drive is continually accessed. Whenever
you change screens, perform some actions
or die. the disk always spends an eternity
whirring around to load mare data. This
quickly gets very wearing and tedious and
is exacerbated by the need to flip the disk
over when entering some parts of the

game.

There's actually a reasonable arcade-
adventure game: the graphics look good
and there are some pleasant puesJes. iut
putting up with the wildly infuriating disk
problems while trying to explore Will be a
bit too much to ask even of the mast patient
game splay ex.

GREEN SCREEN VIEW
T7i6 landscapes lose a lot of their
scenic appeal, and that's ptetty
serious. After all, you 're going to be
staring at them for a long rime waiting
for the dink to stop rwmmg,

► Good graphics for character* and

backgrounds.

I* Some interesting puzzles to solve.

*• Tha disk-accessing would try the

patience of a saint.

*■ Not only continual accessing but you.

have to flip the disk over as well,

► Incredibly difficult to explore the

tfimc and discover things while trying

to put up with such problems.

GRAPHICS

74%
37%

Socc

SONICS

GRAB FACTOR

15%
42%

STAVING POWER

A A RATING

31%

AMSTRAD ACTION NOVEMBER 1986 61

PREVIEWS

PRODIGY

Electric Dreams

S«i» th* M«cW«^ ^ fl» Mftchifte Sorcerer
Wardlock, (hi*/ impending Electric Breams
title is an ai cade adventure. There's no-
thing new about the perspective you view
the Ifitechlabs in rough - It** good old i*o-
metric 3D jus! like B&tm&n - bat where
ccKrveoaonal games switch «cieen* t Are*
di'gy usb« & scrolling display,

Yoa pftsy Solo the Syntieman, an ex-
perimental synthetic feamw created by
Waidlock, and your task is to ftscape from
the Mechjibs. Thai's nol ail - you have to
take yotiT friend Nejo with you. Nerjo is only
a baby though, so you 'II hare to food him,
protect him and change his nappy while
collecting the items you need to escape.

There are dangers along the way in the
form of WardJock's earlier attempts at syn-
thetic life, the Bloberites and the Globe*
wels. There are also some tricky obstacles
in the form of icy surfaces and invisible
walla, and there's a tefepen network to
learn your way round, tf you're an explor-
ation freak with a taste for cote graphics,
this i* one to watch out for.

TRAIL BLAZER

Thia fast arcade-action game previewed at
the PCW show is another example of the
latest games crane - abstract bounce-em-
upst Gremlin is hardly jumping on (he
bandwagon, mind your with AA Rave Thing
on li Spiing And Mastergame Bounder, they
practically invented bouncing.

The game idea runs like this; you
control a ball as it bounces down a long
multi-coloured path. You have lo get to the
other end within a given lime limit t using
the different colour ad squares to help you.
Some squares make you bounce, some
speed you up and some slow you down
Worit of all are blue squares which re-
verse your controls if you land on them,
and the numerous holes in the path which
lose you considerable amounts of time.

lake all the most addictive games, it
just sounds too simple to work, It's not just
addictive though - with your viewpoint
directly behind the ball, (he path zooming
by underneath yow, it's exhilarating and
graphically appealing. Wacky extra fea-
tures on the disk version should give you a
few laughs as well.

Watch out for the full review next
month.

62 AM5TRAD ACTION NOVEMBER 1986

fT'i... -- 3

5 5

■■■■■■i

t ^

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dungeons can be a righ

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They have their reasons of course. They're guarding a
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into your amazingly capacious swag bag.

Dandy is the ultimate dungeon. Enter at your peril "

FEATURED

3 complete 5 level dungeons

Treasure trove screens at itte end of each dungeon

One or two ptayers

5 different spell types

A variety of nasties

Frenzied, thumb-busting action

—4 AVAILABLE ON: 1 _V

"CO? iTtetT|tflYid Comnfc;

'rnpuiar'

•m\ 1 ? . fc"~ * ""V. ,i

™?1

S t 1 W A ft C

ELECTRIC DREAMS SOFTWARE.
CARLTON CRESCENT, SOUTHAMPTON
SOt 2LW TEL: (0703) 22969-i

Mail Order: Electric Of earns Software,

23 Pond Street, Hampstead,

Footbafier of the Year

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Had to Iftff, feftffcf F%/
Despite the Cowled Crusader**
attempts to take a well-deserved holiday this month,
Warlock Nicholson has summoned me from my retreat at
Land's End to provide thee with these pages of dazzling
entertainment.

So put on thy sunglasses, and get thee stuck ittka tiw
month' a offering from the man with the Amhre Sotom
and the «py oftniermptor's After Shock?

After Shock

Interceptor, £9,95 eass, £24.95 disc

Interceptor has been on the verge of producing its latest game
Earthquake for some months now. The company finally re-
leased it at the PC W show in September with a new name and -
eek! - a fatal bug. Typing PRESS, or other ill-fated commands,
would instantly produce a screenful of garbage and prevent
further progress in the game.

The Cowled Crusader is glad to report that this mishap
(due to an over enthusaistic disk-protection program) has now
been cleared up. So you can buy the game with confidence as
far as bugs are concerned.

But what about the adventure itself? Is it really worth £3.95?
Seems a bit steep for a game these days unless it's really hot-
Well, the first thing is that I wasn't able to make much
progress in the game due to the aforementioned bug. but I have
managed to gather enough info and gain some first impressions
that should give you something to go on - I'll print a follow-up
review next month.

Interceptor's previous games have had a COuple of major
disadvantages and one big asset; lack of text, too easy, and
brilliant graphics respectively. After Shock, you'll be pleased to
hear, has managed to a certain degree to correct the two
failings and retain the pretty pics.

First, the location descriptions. These are considerably

■ "V ;■*■*■; $v*KllVi>sY

longer than earlier Interceptor offerings and give a good
atmosphere to a game in which you must traverse a ruined city
after an earthquake and fix a nuclear reactor before it blasts off
into space with most of the surrounding couniryside.

The only thing 1 felt was that the longer descriptions tempt
you to be more ambitious in your commands, but in fact the
vocabulary, though larger than previous titles, still isn't quite as
good as the descriptions might suggest. A long description of a
lift, for instance, might tempt you to examine the various parts
mentioned, only to get "Try something else' or an equivalent
rejection. Alter Shock doesn't tell you which word it's having
difficulty with, which can make certain pussies more difficult H^*'
than they might otherwise need to be. (

Which leads onto the question of difficulty, A couple of
earlier Interceptor lilies - Forest at the World's End in parti- 1 /
cular - the Cowled Crusader found far too easy. Interceptor
claim that After Shock is far more difficult but until I've had a
chance to get further into an unbugged version of the game I
can't comment. First impressions are that the game is a little
more devious than Interceptor's earlier releases, which is of
course good news.

After Shock was written by the same author as Jewels of
Babylon and Heroes ofKam The storyline looks good, and the
pictures {some of which boast animated bils, which are quite
striking) are every bit as good as we've come to expect from
this company. Unfortunately there are only 16 of them t iiut I
suppose you can't have everything.

My feeling is mat with only around 120 locations and a
rather antiquated parser this game is very slightly overpriced
at £9,9S. But stay tuned for next month's follow -up review for the
final verdiet-

Ppppiciopapuqrm! AMSTRAD ACTION NOVEMBER 1986 67

SPECTRUM

COMMODORE

& AMSTRAD

HOME COMP U TERS

S f T w A a I

Electric Dreams Software.

31 Carlton descent,

Southampton. Hampshire SOI 2EW.

Tel: (G703i 229694

Rebel Planet

Adventure Soft or U.S. Gold, £9.35 cass, £14.95 disk, keys
only

Adventure Soft is very lively concern near Birmingham master-
minded by Mike Woodroffe of the old Adventure International
software house. Mike is. however, anxious to dispel any
associations with previous releases bat even so t feel it's worth
mcntoning the connection because AI was nothing if not prolific
in its output (in its day) and I have high hopes of this new
company.

Adventure Soft has the game rights to Isaac Asimov's range
of books, and the company also puts out games based on the
Fighting Fantasy series as devised by Steve Jackson and Tan
Lsvmgston. Tift from this latter siable that Re&el Planet
emerges.

The game was written by Stefan Ufnowaki and Roger Taylor
of Adventure Soft and features some very attractive graphics.
The screen layout is in some ways similar to earlier Adventure
International titles: a horizontal 3plit display with a neat graphics
window and a scrolling text area below. There the comparisons
end, however, since the vocabulary is quite a bit larger than
earlier AI releases - about 400 words and the parser handles
some more complex inputs - GO WEST AND EAST THEN OPEN
THE DOOR for example.

The graphics are very attractive and include some ani-
mated sequences As you begin the game on board the
merchant ship Caydia you will see the stars shooting pasi the
command module window, while at other points of the game
various monsters or objects will flicker into life while you
wonder what to type in next, The animation isn't exactly
stunning, but it undoubtedly adds something to the overall feel
of the game.

The plot in Rebel Planet involves your finding your way to a
'queen computer" which is controlling the Arcadian EmpiTe
troops who are invading the galaxy and threatening civilisation
as we imagine il. The biggest problem involves liaising with
your ship's pre-progr;wir-fid flight path: just occasionally you'll
find yourself stranded on a planet as the Caydia happily jets off
to another destination. You can. however, delay lake-off in a
dire emergency, but this feature can be used only once in a
game.

I enjoyed playing Rebel Planet. It's not the most astonish-
ingly innovative game around, but the puzzles are logical and
there's enough here to keep you going for a few days. I liked
the idea of having to contact other spies for information, and the
spaceship schedules caused additional challenging problems.
However Adventure Soft's policy is to stick to sure-fire commer-
cial successes, and to some extent I believe thai the company's
adventure system (which saves time and therefore money) is
slightly lacking in inspiration: 400 words isn't a very large
vocabulary by today's standards and there are no RAMS AVE or
OOPS options, for example, though J hear that these are to be
introduced m later tides.

Wsich out for reviews of Adventure Soft's latest titles in the
next issue. In the meantime you could do worse than crash the
'queen computer' in Rebel Planet.

Adventure contact

Pat Winstanley of Adventure
Probe magazine - which I ment-
ioned a while back - has now
written to ask me if I would
mention Adventure Contact:

'Adventure Contact ts tn-
to.nded to help novice writers to
understand the intricacies of
utilities such as OAC and The
Quill and at the same time pro-
vide a source of play-testers
and so on for more experienced
writers who have completed
gair.es The magazine also aims
to provide information and help
for those writers who wish to
market their own games, by act'
ing as a source cf information on
suppliers and markets far
instance '

Sounds like a good idea to
me. Pat's address, if you're in-
terested, ts 13 Holltncjcon Way.
Wigan. WN3 6LS.

Such rudeness

'Congratulations with your Ad-
venture Corner m Amslrad Ac-
tion,' writes Jaehee Lee of the
Netherlands. Then he spoils it
all by saying, 7 still think tttttt
the adventure column in Com-
puter and Video Games ts the
beat, but you are a very good
number two!'

This is too much for the Pilg
to bear. The Cowled Crusader
simply will not accept second
place. As it happens, I am
pleased to announce that from
year's end the PUg's pages will
present 3 major reorganisation
and facelift, including maps,
more tips, more games re-
viewed, and more of the inimit-
able, unbeatable me.

And as for you, Jaehee
•» The fialrog is on its way -
please speak nicely to it, offer it
a knife and fork, and then sit on
a large plate -

Attaining impossible

"Can you advise me about the
best way to market a game with-
out getting ripped off and how
to copyright it?' aaks David Barr
of Antrim.

Hrnmmm,..This question is
often asked. David - and parti-
cularly now we have adventure-
writing utilities such as GAC
and The Quill. There are two
points to be made. Fast, the law
surrounding copyrigtu of com-
puter programs is still in a cer-
tain amount of disarray. You
can, however, protect yourself
to a certain degree by:

ensuring thai your name, the
data, and a copyright message
is encoded into the program in

ASCII at a fixed address and is
also prominent or all packaging
t> lodging a copy of the
program {with labelling as
above) with your bank or a
similar inaniuiion so that in the
event of a claim you can prove
your prior possession of the
game

As for marketing' the game,
] trunk it :s fair to sij that there
are virtually no successful soft-
ware houses in the UK who Will
deliberately rip off a program-
mer who sends in a game for
evaluation. There are also virtu-
ally no successful programmers
who do not feel thai they have
been cither underpaid or other-
wise abused by one software
house or another.

It id unwise to Attempt to
market a game yourself unless
you feel that you have no
alternative.

Level 9 lash-out

And now a rather odd letter
from no less a gen I than Pete
Austin of Level 9 fame. It run-
neth as follows:

"The Graphic Adventure
Creator from Incentive Software
seems quite a good product and
has been getting seme clever
marketing of late. Indeed, some
people may ever; have gained
the impression that it is equiva-
lent to Level 9's adventure sy-
stem ..."

Hmmrrirn... Have they re-
ally? t honestly find this difficult
lo believe Level 9's system is
not available for public use so
the only real comparison thai
could be made would be be-
tween games produced by the
two different systems, rather
than the systems themselves
However, let us continue,,.

'We compared Level 9's sy-
stem with the newest version of
Incentive's GAC, on the Gom^
modore $4:

&> Adventure Facilities.
The GAC scams to omit many
features which we take for

granted

nowadays: eg. RAM

SAVE, OOPS, multi-tasking and

arrays.

Memory left for adven-
ture. Level $ has spent months
carefully optimising the
machine-code kernel of our ad-
vnture system so it wastes the
minimum of space. Where the
GAC reports only 23K free for
the adventure. Level 9's system
provides 39K. Thai's 70% more.

> Graphics. The GAC's
pictures look very pretty, until
you realist ■ thai the six pictures
in its demo game use over 1 IK.
That's more than all 200 pictures
in a typical Level S game put
together. Or to put it another
way, just six pictures use half
the total memory available lor
the entire GAC adventure!

Program compression.
Level 9 has spent years optimis-
ing compression techniques
and, taking Price of Magik as an
example, 160K if adventure
logic source compiles down to
just 1SK. '

Well, the letter continues,
but I don't think we need say
any more. Pete has made his
point, but for the life of me 1
can't see why he bothered! It
would be different if his system
were up on the shop shelf
beside GAC. bur it isn't. And in
the meantime I still reckon thai
GAC tops the league of adven-
ture generators and I still re-
ckon that many of the readers'
games sent to me written using
the utility are of excellent qu-
ality. Perhaps, dare I suggest.
its the quality of the competition
rather than the utilities used to
produce it that's got Level 9
won led?

One interesting point to
emerge from Pete's letter, how-
ever, is a brief sample of some
Level & A-Code - the stuff they
use to write their games. In this
short section, we encounter a
goblin who won't let you pass
unless paid with a bar of gold:

fcV--:

.tfOVEPASTGOPLlH HffvtNfXT

MESSAGE 0YPAYPWS1

fttnififc

itSSftOE DOHTWAHTTMA g

FETURN i

5S55witai!-TrTW I;

1 GIVENEXT ^ _^_ ^V^

This month's charts were really interesting for two reasons.
First, there were many more voles than ever before, and
readers nominated a wider range of games. Global "s Old
Scores gol several mentions, as did Bored of tfte Rings and
although neither actually made it into the Top Ten it was good to
seem them being put forward along with games like Robui of
Sherlock. Subsunk. and a host cf other titles. All this goes to
show that adventurers are broadening their tastes and adding
to their collections as the Amstrad adventuring market comes of
age.

Here goes then with this month's Top Ten h and this month's
Lucky Klg whose entry was picked out of the Cowled
Crusader's folded cape; John Clark of Tyne; and Wear, who
receives a free copy of The Hobbi thorn Melbourne House,

Don't forget to vote early for next issue. Help make this
chart an important aid to all other adventurers who may be
wondering what to spend their hard-earr.ed pennies on. Tour
opinions count, and you could walk away with some free
software into the bargain!

Adventure Top Ten...

1 Red Moon (Levels)

2 Never Ending Story (Ocean)

3 The Hobbit (Melbourne House)

4 Lord Of the Rings (Melbourne House)

5 Heroes of Kara (interceptor)

6 Warlord (Interceptor)

7 Hitch titers Guide (tifocom)

8 Worm in Paradise (Levels)

9 Heavy on the Magick (Gargoyle)

10 Emerald Isle (Level 9)

To The Pilgrim

Amstrad Action
The Old Bars
Somerlon, Somerset
TA1I SAH

My favourite three adventures are:

Game Company

The reasons for my first choice above are:

The free game I would like if I'm a lucky Pilg is:

My name:

My address (BLOCK CAPITALS ONLY PLEASE):

ADVENTURE

=*^

Thi* moikih his wen i bumper crop of applicants for immortality in the Lords ud

Ladies column. UnforturuilcSy wo lunm'I room lo fil you all in dus time, but tijth™ of

the Chosen Ones who can't be included here wiE be earned forward to n*xc

is issue.

Tn» Pitg gets many laquewx for n*:p. bttt as 1 often point oat I'm a±r*id I limply

haven't ox* the tima ro mivfi tharo aL - or wen ui ir.any case? to acknowledge

th*m. So please twice good u*e ol dw Lord* and Ladies, who have put in mmy

hours of keyboard- tapping and ftalrog-bashing so dial they can give you the benefit

of their experience

If you should ha»a any cause for complaint about anyone in the Lords and

Ladjvi column, Let me know, Thar* hive been terrible isles of Lord) vrho have

boasted, of their accomplishments but have not actually finished the games! This

terrible crime will not go unpuxubad if discovered!

And make sure you don't give thr Lards and Ladles therr.selves any cause for
rorr.plmnt Always enclose s self-addressed siamped anYclcpc fitvc: phone them
liter 1 ic r.ighl . Think youl

Mindshadow, Hevar-Ending Story. E*piona?e Island. The babbit. Price of Magik,
Mordom Que/t, Rtturrt to Eden, Bond of the Ring*

Rod Pvnlop, 43 SutborUnd lianui, Poll ak ihlelcLs, Clisgaw, C41 4ET

/brow at Sam, Wailocd, Jfevei Ending Story. Sub-Sunk. $*a-Ba*a Pen*. Fentttt*

Diamond

Jul** GrimJey. 5 Folly Lint, Armagh, N Inland, BT60 LAI

GeJgml Adventure. Forr.it at the World's End, Mcm*gv tioni AmJfvmwJ*. Had

Moon

JUex JUxd, 13B ftrornford Hold, Hedge Hill, Birmknglurrv BiE 9HJt

Stibjujilt Heroes cfk'*rt>

Rlctuurd Shield, 126 Carlingtaow Lane, Bfcllcy, Wcit York*, WTI7 8DW (Tel;

|0M4) 41 4139)

Keiiiin Jo JEtfeA. Loray yfMidfj-g'hf. TheHohbit, M&ispoit. Spellbound. Sub-Sunk
P*ul Sugg, ?,S9 B arrow by Ro4d. Grantham, Lines, NG31 nNTft

Colossal Adventure. Adventure Quest. Dunrraort Adventure, Lords of Time,
Emarnld !skf, Upturn m Eden. Snowball. Worm m Paradite. Red Maori. Price of
Magik, Sored oftha Pings, Seas of Blood, Souls of Darken, Maidens Quest, Rohm of
Sherwood, N#v4t~kndittg Story, Lords of Midnight, Bunestcne, Espionage island.

ir.es Curse, Ship of Doom. Planar of J^cnih, Message from Andromeda, Je vela q!
Babylon, rferoeaofEam, Forest at World'* End, Warlord.. The Hatha
Petw Brown, SI Ropers. XTtnvt, CklngioTd. Lnndcn. £4 8EG

Forest at the World'* End. Message from Altdxomttda, Hobbit
Thorn.** McMwroW*. J McDonald Street, Dundee, Dl>3 TBI*

Spellbound, jaival* of Babylon. Substiltlc, Sottbaso Dalit, Heavy on- the Magik.
Swords and SorcerySedA Jones, SZ Riveridalc, Llandaf North, Car dill, & Wall*

Gremlins, Hobbit, ft ever-Ending Story

hin Coalhuri, SnelLoA CotLagt, ItaAeley, KftJU-*i.h*wmgli, N Tork i

Forettat th* World'* End, Jewala ot Babylon, afoaaaga front Andromeda, Heroes ol

Kant. Sored of the Ring*, Snowball. Gam* of$ir*du*

l*iti Fxitdl*. 9 Clss-tford Road, Stnlnaven, Lanark shLre, Scotland, ML 10 6LL

Haroea of Sam, Empire of Sam, Crystal* of Cam*. Jawti* of Babuhn. Sabttmk,
Saabata Delta, Worm in Paradi** t Voodoo Cattle, Tatrormolwo*. Mardons Quest,
NwvarmKting StQIf, Mmdshadow. Urban Upstart. Robin of SJtanrood, Hamprttiad,
Wilifd of JUcyrx. Hehbit, Time IXachif.m. Circus Arrow of Heath Part S, Emerald
fsl* Lord* of Tintf. Gremlin*, Sarceror afClaymorgue Cdsllc. Red Moon. Ten Little
tnditft*. P&rteu* and Andromeda.. Zzax, Feasibility Experiment, Valkyrie 17, Bored
of the Ring*. ft'r»W Adventure, Very Big Cave Adventure, Valhalla. Goldtn Baton.
Sing of Piiv/ai, Advtmtut»ttnd, Colossal Adventure. Quest for the Holy Gritil, The
Inaudible Hulk, Puce Of Magic. Return W Ed«n. Snowball, Tfw Pilgrim, The Snow
Queen. Espionage island, bic* Curse, Fenfilla, The Helm, Lard of tiut Rings. Ship of
Doom, Zorkl, Spidenr.tn. Wutlonf, Forest at thv World * End, Planet of Death
fchn R Bamsley, AdrcnroToicTi*, 32 Merrlrale Road, Riling Bie«k, Stafford,
Staffs, iTl I &EB

All Interceptor gami»

Peler Lnglis, Ar Dachaidh, Archive, Kyle, Rotl-tAtrt, I¥40 BEB

Warlord 1 , Red MoOn, Hero** of Sam. Lotda ■of Time, Mataage from Andromeda

W*yitaamdSW, Forert at World'* End. Suhfitn*:

Simon Miribill. 23 Springfield Wit. Stockton Lui, T«k, TO30HN

Seshame Delia, Teiwrmoiino*

The bfaiue Utd L«no SelpUn*, 6 Penrhyn ATenaa, Lftheiland, LlTrrpooi, LZ1

OTD

htotdota QtieJt, Jewels of Babylon. Herat-* OfXajfn. Souls OfDarkOJi, M**t*g* from

Andromeda., Forest at World's End, Smugglers Cove, Red Moon, Warlord, Emerald

Mia Shirley Wall. 38 Glabdands. Westfield Radatock, Bath. Avon, BA3 MTJ

Forest at World's End, Jewels of Babylon. Lordoftho RmgxPart f

Jarr.i-o McMitqn, J ?. Sid^n-rad flgldltiga, Sl«nehon.Bej LuLarkshUr, ML9 jkG

70 AMSTRAD ACTION NOVEMBER 1986

Fallowing my request for some lips an some lesa-pubiiciasd
games, 1 received a tidy little batch of clues front Pat Winstanley
ol Adventure Coniaci. So here goes with another selection of
head -spiriting tips for those in sticky situations.

Stick lo pushing hy ihe window

Ciimb out at the deep freeze

Check the Amstrad manual for colour coding

Redhawk

Lesley wants soinettung pretty ...

Don't drop the vase - take it to a museum

Castle at Skull Lord

Chop tree for something nautical

Wake the bear, but be ready to feed it

Dig snow to find another way through

Clobber the dog with a bone

The mar. needs some first-aid - a bandage

Island of Riddles

Vault nvei lo gel across

use a branch
riit the stone to light the lamp

Al^trad

Examine the tree, open the safe

The river u alcoholic ... and so is fuel!

SPECTRUM

COMMODORE

&AMSTRAD

HOME COMPUTERS

s e f t w

R ;

Electric Dreams Software.

31 Carlton Crescent,

Southampton Hampshire S01 2EW.

Tel: (0703) 229694

■r

»l

III

& e

IS*

jfi

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'ill

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72 NOVEMBER 1386 AMSTRAD ACTION b«

fill.

«£

>*.<fc

f l

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I I

a y*u ™*a <,u V AMSTRAD ACTION NO VHrtBER 1 980 33

14 NOVEMBER 1986

wW tMD«jna H "-" i —

ya.oniiizi.iteiwgiaK. &MSTRAD ACTION NOVEMBER 1986 75

Bob Wade checks out your tips, pokes and game-
busting ploys, The best ones covld win a entire issue's
AA Raves! So why not send YOUR latest gem to: Cheat
Mode, Amstrad Action, Somerton, Somerset, TA11
5AH.

AIIaji TrotRLks from Chisel-
den feu everything you want
to know about tilt bewitching
game- With his tip* and our
map from iiine 12 you «ht>nJ d
b* able to cradt toe gun*.

The beet place to start is in
the throne room. This is
because it is in the middle of the
caatle and gives easy access to
three of the collectable item*,
which you should get in rhi*
order:

Shield - Go into the roof above
the shield and drop through the
hole onto h, bouncing straight
back into the room so that the
gargoyle doesn't, tip you off inic
thin am. Be careful not to land on
the gargoyle's head when you
come through or you're in big
trouble.

Crown - Bounce onto Che sec-
ond step then bounce again and
you will get the crown. Go left
two sateens and bounce at fun
onto the gargoyle and back
again. Then bounce back onto
the gargoyle and hold the joy-

N^9?

i***

i.*-

:"¥.■ - ■:•-■

can get the gobleL Bounce back
immediately and retrace back-
wards off the ledge to the left.
Axe i Keep going left and pick
up the axe. Keep going left una)
you drop and then jump out of
the window onto the roof.
Scdssoro - Bounce left and out of
the fat ieft roof hole (avoiding
gargoyles head), collecting (he
magic and tailing to pick up the
scissors.

Now the hard bit. Go
through the castle to the roof
above where the shield was and
go right. Go up the platforms to
the top of the roof. Go right to
where the spider is and with
one big jump gel onto the plat-

CAULDRON

1 '■. Ik

5 '••'ffi-swSak

form above him, and out of (he
suck left ami] (he bounce has top right Up the next screen to
calmed dowm, then bounce onier the witch's bedroom.
nghr. The witch's magic won't
Goblet - Bounce into the roof move, allowing you to gel a lock
and go down and down again, of her hair, but it still lolls if
Bounce left, dropping from a touched. Now just gel to the top
window and then bounce tight, of the building to get the spe-
Go through the skeleton and llbook and then down to the
bounce high and right until yon cauldron

A great tip for all owners of the

Firebird game on disk- It comes

from J McGuiness of StocksJield

and does some very weiTd

things Here's what you do;

), Start game and go to the

load/save game screen.

i. Select the option 'load new

command er'.

3. Input commander's name as

"Elite" and pi ess Enter

4 The message 'disk loading

error' will appear.

5. Press '4' to exit the screen.

6. Press Space lo begin game
and you are in for a big
surprise.

Apart from giving you all sorts
ol things you don't normally
have, this also seems to intro-
duce some interesting bugs into
the game, So play around with it
and see what happens.

Rhys Jones from Peter-
borough ha* some thorough
tips to hs-tp yon gel through
the PSS game, including a
poke foi creating a super-
character. There's also a map
from Tobias Mills of Acemb
showing all four of the game
zones.

chest

door

gateway to
another zone

Mapped by
Tobias Mills

I . Before trying to name your
character press Capslock, as
only capital letters are allowed.
3, The masters possess the fol-
lowing skills and results when
you study with them.

Turbo Esprit

Some quickie tips from Wayne
Harrigan of Bexleyheath on
drug- ring busting

1. Avoid chasing the red cars
(armoured cars} near the end of
the game, because they lead
you on a little mystery tour
duo ugh ail the back streets and
barge you imo signs, people
and lampposts.

2. Never shoot anything. You
get many moie points for ramm-
ing into the back of a car up to
2.O0G sometimes.

3. Never choose different towns
when you start playing. After
using the same town a few times
you become used to it and
eventually know it by heart.

4. Always go fast, only stowing
for tumoffs,

Poke n

This is the section where w
explain how to input the ma jo
iry of Ckett! Mode pokes, Thej
are two different methods - tr
instructions for each poke tc
you which one to use. If ye
have a 664 or 6138, you'U hav
to type I tape before usui
either.

Method 1: Make sure th
you've rewound the game tap
to the beginning. Now type :
the poke lusting Then type Rtf!
and press the 'Enter' key. (Dor
use the key marked 'CTRL' c
CONTROL', that will stop th
poke from working.) Press tf
PLAY key on the cassette dec
and hit any key on the ma:
keyboard - the space bar w.
do nicely. The tape should no
start to play through in tfc
norma] way,

Method Zx Pox this metho;
you have to skip the first bit t
ihe game program, To do th*
start by rewinding the garr

76 AMSTRAD ACTION NOVEMBER 1986 aii ih C p^»,

CHEAT MODE

Yama
Bog
Scrag
Oral

JvaVestori

Villa

Jack

Grieves

lscarth

Verna

Merlock

Hiibris

Seciet of death
Way of the Sword
Way of the spear
Way of the staff
Secret of strength
Way of the thief
Agility

Secret o( etiquette
Way of the fist
Secret of taking blows
Way of ihe magician
Improve instincts

Use once on] y

1 to ptktU with weapon

lie skill with weapon

1 to dull with weapon

2 to strength

1 to thieving skills

3 to ugility
Use once only

l to skill without weapon
t to ability to take blows
V to magic skills
1 to thieving ak^lie
zone 3

3- Ut ih* armoury always buy
the cheapest things brat. You
can buy anything aa long a* you
have at least one dragon * tooth.
In other Words even a you only
have one tooth left you can still
buy the armour*

Staff
Shield

Armour
Sword

Spear

if.
IS
40
SO
9

Hftlrnel ■
Gold
Wine
Pie

p 1

1 §1

— ZC*Jtj

i |ij

iZT-J

ii li 1

torus 4

S-'JUW lOX' *N£

thods

:* to the beginning. Now type
the listing. Then type CAT,
A press the Enter 1 key. Start
I tape by pressing PLAY and
;mq a key, and then watch the
oon.

After a little while you'll get

message "Found

.'rTHiNG block i". it thwart

mar what the SOMETHING ac-
illy is this will vary from one
me to another . If the instrue-
■ns with the poke just tell you
skip the first block you should
jp the tape here. If Ihe instruc-
:.ns tell you to skip several
.ngs, stop the tape when the
ound' message comes up for
c last thing you're trying to
ap.

Once you've stopped the
pe press the ESC key. type
"N, and press the 'Enter' key.
:.w press PLAY on the tape
ck, and hit a key on the key-
-ud to start the tape running.

[«*

mm m sorcery

Ifl H03E 2

21 H£H9RY BIltEfl-lJ

30 FOR tsHlFIEMM TD HlflErM?

40 READ i

51 POKE i f i

6i NEXT

79 PRINT 'insert tape to lea

d saved eate then press any

key.'

3* WHILE INKE¥*=":N£NB

91 CALL HlltEIHI

1H PRINTrPRUT "Current imi

c i& "i

lid FOR t =39321 TO 39835

171 PRINT CHIWFEftft) AM *

ffjj

130 IF PEEK(t)}lH THE* t=39

835

141 NEIT

151 PAINT

143 PRINT

171 INPUT 'Input the Ml MR

e *;a*

IBB IF LENdtMU Eft LEN(if)

1 1 THEN 281

190 a<=ifPPER*tai:-

20* at=LEFTt(a1,LeHUt)-U+C

Hftf(&8f4A5C<R;fMf<at.m>

210 FOR IM ID LEH(al)

221 POKE 3*&lfn,ftSCfntW(il

|t,l»»

230 NEXT

211 PRINT

250 POKE 39735,210
260 POKE 3*784,210 -
270 POKE 39797,210
280 POKE 35303,2(0
291 POKE 39784,201

4, To we if an item is magical,
hold it and then use the crown of
magic detection.

5, There are lota at different
potions but H you $vcr get
poisoned use thft peppermint
potion as b cure.

6, There ar* two ways to deal
with pits: you can go around
them or jump them. A* agihty
goes up you can jump further.
When in the 3Wte you can. leap
whole corridors.

I. As thievwg skill goes- up you
can dioarm and pick locks more
easily- Smashing chests de-
crewes your thieving skills fctjt
increases your strength.
9. The magic numbers have the
following meanings, reading
top to bottom, the left f column
first: don't know, fighting skill
with weapon, thieving skill,
magic skill, unarmed- combat
skilly strength, don't know, don't
know, ability to take blows,
agility.

To oae the poke you first
need to save your character
from the game then type in the
poke and run it This will
prompt you to toad the saved
character , You can then change
his name if required fl«*t hit
Enter if you don't warn to
change), You'll then be
prompted to save the character
• back: <!!ttib tape. This new char-
acter can man be used as .any
other saved game to4oad back
iaso Sword* and Starauy,

310 POKE 39791,208

311 POKE 39798,2ft
320 POKE 39347,200
331 POKE 39814,200

340 POKE 39796,208

35* PRINT "New value* have be
en poked.'

341 PRINT

57? PUKE HTHEftMfl,lSB

381 PRINT Insert tape to sav

e net* character on, then pre

ss any key."

391 WILE IHKEYM'MOIJ

48B CALL HJlCK+1

418 END

421 DATA 33,171,133,17,103,1

fl, 62,22,215,16!, 188,201

.A.

'at;v

K 4 *

^ Ia « fi ti 6p ^i AMSTRAD ACTION NOVEMBER 1986 21

Based on Judo, UCHI-MATA, is probably
the most advanced and challenging
martial arts simulation to date-

AM the skiffs n' spiffs - without the bruises! H 7

ComrrwoVxe 64-1 33 C^swrtc f-9 95

DKctlQ vb

Spectrum 48 1W Cassette £8*5

AmiUdd 4A4 664 A ISA
Cassette £9 .95 P v: £1 395
MSx Cassette £9.95

'echr.t ai tonyjK^'t, Euan Jacks,
comptetng o successful UCH-
MAD\ one of Eh* many excftiriq

ttwtivifii riLUF|Xjrd ( .Cd ifi tne game

Bran Ja<l« received tin black belt,
1st Dan, ¥¥tntn only 15, He is now
e 7th Oan, an elite woHd group.
Havwig won the 6riti , sh

Chdrnpion*,hip eleven UMii-y. the
Open Ctvimpinircshp five times, the
European Championship four
time; and an Olympic Meoal, he is
one of the most knowledgeable

and tere moit exponents of Judo

in the world.

Ma/lech H the fegffitered ddde mark of Sattwar* ComrmirsfHticim limited,

Martech Hotisc, fey "feprgrf?, PicwenKcy D^V, £*>t Sussex BNii* 6EE

TRAfli tHQUIRIES WELCOME. PHOHE: (0323 i 76H45A TELEX; S7S373 Martec G

£ix^rju

There was a good response to
the challenge to produce joy-
stick control on the Master-
tronic dual-play ei game. The
best ot the bunch were by Phil
Howard of Mapperley and
Timothy Lunws of Sander-
stt-dd. Phil's allows you direc-
tional joystick control la a
one-player game and acti-
vates the armour thai didn't
work in the original game.
Timothy's allow* single- or
dual-joystick control,

although the second joystick
may not work exactly as
planned with all dual-Joystick
connectors. If the second
player would prefer the
original keys or you don't
have a second Joystick then
just delete lines 1 10-140 before
using the poke-- Both pokes
are entered using Method 1.
Phil's is printed drat.

ST5f?ff ONE

CHEAT MODE

,ftf v «f f 32 f $l

li 3ATA 0A T ; 3 , ie, Cd , e5 , >6 , c9

,cMc,H,?J

SB mti 3o,3i,cd,24 1 bb,F5 < cU

,i7,t4,e6,Bfi

SB &ArA f l f 47, 2

,l8,cb,5?,2K

ofl 5-TA Bb,ca,4VMMfci 5e

P 2B f ll 1 eT 1 3c

U 1AM %,&,.

,3e,32,5B,B3

?hTA c?,io,l
,77,be,2i,7e
93 DATA Sl,cd,S
,21,51,88,22
1«S DATA dt,er,2l ( be,aa,;i' r *

110 BATA cd ! «« } 2},cd 1 «5 f 22,c

lit] v=3:R£fiD.R? i30BB

1 3 &ATA B8,3a,j5,57,?3 T *5,28 1 3* FOR 1*131 TO K7:ft£M a*

1 34,Ct!,v3 l &

M0 a-t'AH*fc»H*JsrliK *,a

a DhT* rf,3*,5B,lB,b7.c*,5a I5B y^Titfattl

141 If yOHCSI THEN PRINT
Data error "SHU

m LOAJ-oes'.K^a
136 LAW* J'^yjM sL0«

i« CALL i*E

|Tfl8B THG

18 BflTrt 2K8cr,bS,:i,48,e8,3(

28 DATA ctf r 3t f t>r,2a,6f,aa,fr(f

,5b

38 DATA 9F,b3 l 3e,Ii 1 c{t,al,bc

,?*

46 mt& oF t aa 1 ei t ea,0o,« i f,::

58 DATA a* t 3a t ?M3,feiH,21
i IB

* v w

t M

79 DATA 0B,e?,3e,4e,77,BI,P*

.Bo-
ss DATA B? i ;.p 1 48 t 77,ai ( 04,flB

,3?

9! DATA Si,**, 77,11 i*MMf
ill

169 DATA 4b,
e, 15,77
II MM 21,57, il,3t,$MM

28 DATA iMB.M.Se.MJT.iJ
U

se &ArAa« T B? l 3f l 32 T 77 t ei ) B

4,1

4* MTA W ( 3*,33,77
58 DATA e3,7D s il,end
ofl flENORV JrHFF
7fl FOP aWAAs* TO MA6E:ffE
AD b*:IF bS- H end* THEM ]9B
38 PutE iX,VfiLri'+b*]:NEIT
W POKE tft46f,&7flfm SflA7

a,i

2J8 LOAD *' tie*% &35C!
21B LOftS •!* f «|7l
220 LOAD "'".fcSSBB
» CALL MAM

Craig* has responded t.
challenge with a comprehens-
ive playing guide to the CRlt
space game. The guide will
be of most use to somebody
Jnat starting oat with th*.-
game bat even experienced
player* may pick up a hint or
two.

Starting up The first thing
to do is define Lhe key* you
want, Hememjoer that the con-
trols are not saved when ywu
save a game, so every lime you
load up you must redefine (he
keys. It's a good idea to . fly
around for a bit getting used to
the controls and to familiarize
yourself with the display panel.
The one thing to ignore here is
height, which is of no
importance.

The first thing to do at
Reema, your starting point, is to
find the library and reactor sub-
station, You slart near the town
but the automatic direction fin-
der will guide yon back to the
cenlre if you stray. The subst-
ation will contain one or more
control rods and the library a
nmevault.

Docking: This is very
simple and nowhere near as
hard as in Ore. There are six
kinds of building you can dock
with: two types of reactor, two
types of supply station , libraries
and the Under. Head towards
lhe building, gradually slowing.
A blue rectangle should appear
and start to fill the viewscreen.

---apeed and you'll
soon dock. Irs important to re-
member that if fJMp hit a build-
ing with lasers or Vmissiic you
won't be allowed tdngck with it
unless you reload a
or Start again.

Supply centres:
two types, military t
All (Owns have one of _
once docked with you can ac-
cess the Equip function to use
them. A menu with six options
will appear. The refuel, repair
and install-uares options can be
used at either centre, while the
missiles and anti-missile mis-
siles can be installed only at the
military centre. The repair sy-
stem will recharge the shields
and repair any systems
damaged in combat.

Libraries: You'll fund one of
these in every town, usually
near both the centre and a reac-
tor substation They look like a
civilian supply centre with a
diamond on top. Once docked
the command 'LI.' will take you
lo a menu screen. The data
banks allow you access to in-
formation under many headings
(experiment to sec which ones),
but much of it isn't very
relevant.

The city map allows you to
examine detailed maps ot the
city you are in. its outpost and
the neighbouring cities. These
:;how the positions of buildings
<ind enemies but is nol updated
when they are destroyed. The

i map gives information
about the defence levels of dif-
ferent towns and their jump
pads to other towns., The identif-
ication chart shows what the
buildings and ships look tike on
screen and gives information on
their defences and weapons.

Timsvanlts: These are
found in Libraries and provide
useful equipment. You're told
on docking whether there is one
present and can access it by
typing rirnevauJt'. Eight rectan-
gles in a circle will appear with
another rectangle in the middle
Put the cursor over the centre
one and press fire, A pattern
will form in Lhe outer rectan-
gles. Put the cursor over one
rectangle, remembering where
it is, and press fire. If you've
chosen correctly a rectangle al
the top of the screen will light
up; if not the pattern will disap-
pear and you'll have to*atari all
over again. If you get the right
rectangle the pattern will reap-
pear and you must hit the same
one as before in relation to the
others *

There are six objects to be
found in the vaults, each one
serving a purpose. A radiation
suit slows the rale at which the
the radiation, affects you in the
main reactor- Reserve shields
come into operation when
normal shield strength reaches
zero. Experimental missiles de-
stroy everything in a city except
jump pads and buildings you
can dock with. A single jump

unit allows you to jump to s
city's outpost. AH of these have
substations but not supply cen-
tres, and they're often heavily
guarded. The energy recharge
unit speeds up the recharging
of the shield. Durium crystals
can explode when launching,
destroying or damaging the
ship,

Reactors: You must dock
with all. of these to see if they
contain control rods. These
come in t*o halves which have
to be fitted together on a screen
accessed by using the 'rod'
command- This section lb very
similar to the puzzlb-solving in
Impossible Mission and you
should have no problem with
the controls.

In the mam reactor you
have To take the whole rod* you
have formed and drop them into
the circles in the reactor core,
which will light up. This has to
be done quickly because of the
dangerous radiation and heat
levels.

Combat This is faMy
straightforward but there are
some general rips. Use missiles
"when possible since your lasers
otp>rheat easily. Change view*
rather than turning lhe ship to
get at enemies who attack you
when not in sight. Destroy radar
towers lo slop them sending
more ships after you. When
fighting at night don't use in-
frared while shooting a moving
object but put up a flare so you
can target on it more easily.

t^iyamcyw™*.. AMSTR AD ACTION NOVEMBER 1886 79

CHEAT MODE

Tips for the helicopter simul-
ation tome from Clifford Jot-
lifle of Northfleet.

The secret code for the
helicopter section is WREN, Al
the start of the game you are
flying forwards at 45 degrees.
Pull down on (he joystick so you
fly backwards at 45 degrees.
Move the stick to the right till it
gets to bearing 000 degrees. Fly
lo the map numbered 11. Look
along the white line on the de-
tailed map and you should see a
red square. Land here and get
iht? machinegun,

Take ou and go to any other
red squares on the map, getting
all the equipment. There are
two people on this map; get
Berne Fly at bearing 190 until
you gel lo map 10. Collect
equipment from red squares.
Fly at bearing 270 to the allied
camp on map 10. Land on the
ied rectangle and you'll be told
the location of the convent.

Pick up Mary and fly to any
red squares on this sector, stoc-
king up on fuel found around

the camp. Now fly to the? conv-
ent. You'll probably be attacked
by two planes. Shoot one down
and you'll probably be left with
one on your tail. Slow down and
fly backwards and you should
fitid it m your sights. On the
same map as the conveni is
Smithy; pick him up and drop
Mary, Once at the convent you'll
be (old (he location of the sound
weapon.

Fuel - is shown as red dots
and when picked up will go
either straight into the fuel tank
or into the equipment list. You
need to land to top up the tank
with fuel you're carrying.

Maehinegun to use the
gun you need ammo and Bertie.

Repairs - you need Smithy
aboard to repair damage, He
can do this only on the ground
At the main locations.

Attention, cheats!

These pages are all about cheat-
ing at games, but some of you
are taking things; a little far and
copying pokes out of other
magazines. We get enough
high-quality pokes without hav-
ing to resort to such tactics. So
please don't send them in

The pokes printed are

copyright and can'i be used
without the permission of the
magazine that first printed them.
The same goes for anything that
appears here in Cheat Mode, so
don't bother sending our pokes
to anyone else because lliey will
be bound by the same
constraints

-OS***** 6

Tips for the mechanical

dinosaurs come from Owen Hib-

bert of Gosport.

1. Every red Zoid you destroy

has spare power cells if you

scan where it was before you

destroyed it - not just

Slitherzoids.

Z. City domes, mines and

beacons ail leave power cells

when destroyed.

3, If having difficulty destroying

domes, move your sights to the

very edge of a dome and the

mountains will be less difficult to

get past-

4. Nearly all parts of Zoidzilla
are found in domes near or nan
to the power station.

5. U a oty network has only a
couple of Zosds in it then the
chances are there is no piece of
Zoidzilla. All pieces are heavily
guarded. generally with.
Spinebacks.

6. In one network there are two
Hell runners going around tog-
ether. Try to avoid these
because if you destroy one the
other will become a Spineback

Level 3: At the end of level
three, use up your remaining
missiles as you approach the
bridge, because when the gy-
rocopters start lo appear a com-
mandant will also appear and
can be relieved of four missiles.
Four copters will appear, plus a
few troops which make life
more hazardous.

To clear the copters you
need to do a lot of jumping over
the grenades they throw. When
you are at one end of the screen
and a copter is descending at
the other, let fly a missile. Try
not to use up the missiles when
with the copiers as only two or
three commandants come on
screen-
Level 4: This las! stage is
definitely the hardest of the lot-
Lots of karate troops appear
and also quite a few cannon.
Climb the first ladder you come
to at the hangars. If your timing
is just right, jump, and you will
land on the next platform. Cont-

80 NOVEMBER 1986 AMSTRAD ACTION t™*g«™.

The** tip* from Mark Pin-
beiro of Tooting Bee take Up
where the qbcb In i»oe 12 left
off, tackling the end of level 3.
They're followed by two
pokes entered using Method
1. The first is from Richard
Bodges of Burnet, giving com-
plete invulnerability; the sec-
ond it from Phil Howard of
Mapperiav, giving infinite
lives and flamethrower*.

Note: tape users on the 664 and
6128 will need to change 02,b8
in line 40 to lf.bl; in line 60
ea^bl to eS,b7. and also in line
SOdSJsltodfl.bJ.

inue doing this until you reach
the end of the hangars; it is
impossible lor the troops to con-
tinue following you,

When you stab a command-
ant you get grenades. Fling one
of these and everyone but you
on the screen will die. When the
screen stops scrolling at the end
of the level and the siren goer
four times, run to the left side of

9REE-N BERET OWE

IB DATA 3t,*T,32 f tf,24,cS,37
l W,2l f 3i,42

26 GAT A 36,59,23, Ji,r7i Hi «

,4B,iMB,I0

36 SftTA ft ^cBi^.tS, 21,48

t M.e5 t 2l,M

4« DATA t»tt, r5, 21 , f c, 01 , e5, 21

,{7,b8,f5,2i

SB DATA bb, 12, e5 f f],2i ,«,!>:

p ll,^,frl,f3

hi DATA c9

it LOW"* -
» CfliL 43A6A

Hi m r-mu TO 48E37

126 REM al

130 ME ^VALCi'taN

J 40 NOT

150 CALL Um

igol
left. I

the screen as tar as you can
and and lie down facing
Stab continuously and you win
kill the man with (he flamethr-
ower before; he even enters the
screen. Don't stand up and you
will see his Game pass over
your head after you've killed
him That should be the only
person you have to kill,

A very bloodthirsty game.

IB MTA 3e,b7,32,c9, 11,32,17

,25,c3,8B.4B

28 DATA 21,17,22 1 S6,»7,21,«*

,28,11,41,11

38 DATA iI j fc,fl,#d,b£,2r,4B

t 88,e5,2l,88

40 PA FA bb,«5,2i.fc,ai,e5,21

,87,tt8 t eS,2i

58 DATA bb,*2 t rt,fl,2l,ea 1 M

,ii ( dVl,fS
68 DATA rt

7B hflBMfT %im

38 FOR n-ltm m tBE57

ft PEAS a!

IBB POKE ^MLt'l'+att

118 NET

928 im**

131 CALL t3A»A

m L0A»V,«»4B
158 CALL Bltl

I
I

— IB-

f It %

. A

£r

LiiW.^^

w m ^^

1> *v

3s* ^

for the de

C0OWE5 VIDEOS?

•71

< r

From the*

RICHARD DONNER
Production

Based on the Story

by
STEVEN SPEILBERG

Exciting Multiscreen Action and Adventure!

us. Gold Limited, Unit 10, The Parkwav Industrial Centre, Heneage Street,
Birmingham B7 4LY. Telephone 021-559 5020. Telex: 357268

tiae»otT>istr*gLi.-:(<re;jsn]Mrnanei reason nc

The CC-S^i (* is a [.-MSTOf n d ' Viarn** 1 6'cl. Int

: rM5 Wj'Fidr irojtSnc. ftlfnodt5 rEurwo/.

. Wamer-Tam'-iare PuEWsnir-a Cdyj am Reilfa M J!K Ccru

AU'loMsresie^'EtS LH«I By p*f nwssfn -^iDiT.wafflric

CHEAT MODE

We were flooded with pokes
for the Elite game. Unfortu-
nately many of you didn't
work them out yourselves but
merely copied them from
another source. Needless to
say such scurrilous entries
wfte immediately binned,
leaving the real class to show
through. The poke we're
printing is a compilation of
ploys received from Robert
Brooks of Yeovil, Tim Coup?
of Derby and Tony Hoyle of St
Annas,

The poke is entered using
Method 1, and lines 30-80 con-
tain many different pokes, If you
don't want a particular one then
just delete that line. Line 20
gives infinite lives, 30 Takes you
to the next level if you die, 40
slows the whole game down, SO
gives invulnerability to every-
thing but water. 60 changes
level when you press Escape,
70 makes zombies appear more
quickly, SO apparendy affects
the music (hard to tell if that one
works).

if you don't want to use the
pokes then try out the following
tips from Mamood Sultan of

Wamdon.

Level 1: Keep moving right
and jumping over the grave-
atones, making sure you fire at
the zombies which appear.
Jump up and shoot the killer
bird and climb the first ladder
without scrolling the screen,
shooting the plant as soon as
you get to the top. Kill the next
bird and plant and jump off the
end of the hill firing so aa to hit
the oncoming bird.

Having crossed the water
on the raft dodge the flying
knights by running under them,
Shoot the flying demon as
quickly as possible; four hits
will kill him. The ghosts are
fairly easy but watch out for
their spear* and the killer plant
that appears. The ogre at the
end of the level has to be hit
seven times, so stand well back
and keep firing as he leaps up
and down.

level Z- Jump as high as
possible straightaway and fire;
this will destroy the plant. But
watch out for the rock it will
have thrown. Get to where the
plant was, dodging gremlins all
the while, and jump across and

up where you can gel the next
plant. Keep moving right and
shoot the last plant, than jump
off the furthest platform to enter
the town.

Gremlins and crows are
everywhere so you need to be
extra careful. When you get to
the big house with five floors,
shoot the goblins on the !:rs:
four levels (each one eight
times, watching for the flying
hammers when they die). Move
to the right of the founh Door
and go down. Once out of the
house, prepare for flocks of
birds.

On the lifts jump Off One
only when the next one is below
you. When you reach land
again, keep your distance from
the two ogres and fire as rapid-
ly as possible to kill them both.

Level 3: This level involves
speed and a fast trigger finger.
First you must shoot the bats
and then climb the hill, shooting
the rook monsters eight times to
destroy them, avoiding the
rocks they spit. Once you reach
the stone part of the cave the
monsters go wild: four demons,
rock monsters, bats and flying
ghosts. Keep going. Climb the
first ladders you come to and
shoot everything you can.

Eventually you come to the
edge of the top platform and

must jump off, falling several
screens. Move right to the guar-
dian - a flying serpent. He has to
be shot IS times in the scgrr.onls
of his body and four times in the
head to kill him. After that it's
back to where you started.

How to win an
ENTIRE ISSUE'S Rave
software!

If you WAnt to win an fniire
issue's rave software, including
the Mastergame, then all you
have to do is product an rxcell-
em map, poke or playing tips.
We've set you a number of chal-
lenges but if you can produce
something ovon better then feci
free you'll have just as much
chance of winning a prize

The bosi solution will win «
ropy [>f rvn'iy Reive and the
Ma si organic from 'he issue in
which the solution is pi in tod.
The number of games wiSl vary
of course, bui in pasi issues
there have been six Raves or
more that's over £50 of soil
ware and some months it may
top £100 The prises will usually
be oji <assr!!a, unless you re
quosT disk software ol tti*>
equivalent ValiiO. We disc give
out live i unnets up prizes every
month of one of rhe
Raves/Mastetgame in (hat w-sue

eery. Hope you enjoy the ftoft-
waie. Rhys,

The runners-up are: David
Gfrman for his comprehensive
Speed Kmg hack, AlisUir
Graham for his Taa Ceti rips,
Phil Howard for his Green
Beret and Storm pokes, Tim-
othy Lomas. for his Storm poke
and Allan Trotman for his
Cauldron //playing lips.

If you aspire to The heights
of these worthy winners then
get cracking on this month's
challenges'.

1. A map of N*xor.

2. A poke to make character*
more friendly in Doomdnk's
Revenge.

3. A bomb-disposal poke for
Spit f F crsffjiaiitirs.

A. A playing guide or tip* for
Fourth Protocol*
5. A poke to make objects
visible in Qabbalah-

Deciding the puze winners was
very tough this month. But jusl
sneaking ahead of the pack was
Rhys Jones for his playing tips
and poke (or Swords and Sor-

WSSSSSm .

Peter Williams from Cambridge
writes with help for frustrated
owners of the disk version of the
game. He's altered the poke for
the tape game to work with the
disk version h and here it is. Just
type in die listing, save it onto
the game disk and run it to load
the game with 255 lives.

151 UHHILAI)

. L

5CH

iflffiV &5BFF:LuArceil !

,21 FOR a=tfHe TO HU2?fiEflil

a: POKE a,fe:NEZT

3S POKE &5C33,*CSsPffl££ i5C34

,H:FCKE ttC3$,W

;t CALL S5Ci»
|58 MTA 205|l22,lv8,]7S.33,l

52,19^54.92

Richard Hodge* from Barnei has
a poke for the ageing US Cold
game that gives infinite ships on
&• air and sea stage* of the
game. It means that as long as
you don't take the secret pet-
sag* you'Q always have a full
complement of tank*. It's en-
tered using Method 1 . Note: B84
and 6133 tape users should
change MJ** in line 40 to lt>l;
in line SO, aa,bl to e£»b?, and in
line SO dB f bI to d<Ms7

\i im 5e, [9,32^2,79,03,31
,62,21,31,22

20 DATA 3&, 19,23, 3M7,21,«

,21,11,41,11

39 DATA »l,44,B2,ed,b B ,2:.tt

.flfl t eS,21,W

40 DATA W,e5 t 2l,*M2,e5

.87^*5,21

,Ji,Ji^ol,f3

■r mm mm

it LOW

M CALL 13A6A

100 LOAF 1 *,* 28 * 9

til FOR «=&KM TO BE37

128 READ at

13€ mt KjVJtLi'l'+.rt)

148 KEJT

m *m e
ibi call ibm

,21

82 NOVEMBER 1986 AMSTRAD ACTION radabRHbaaww

AVAILABLE NOW FROM VIRGIN GAMES ON SPECTRUM 48/128,

COMMODORE 64/128 AND AMSTRAD CPC RANGE OF COMPUTERS

£9.95 ON CASSETTE AND £14.95 AMSTRAD DISC

PLEASE SEND ME DAN DARE - PILOT OF THE FUTURE IMMEDIATELY!
SPECTRUM 48/12B CASSETTE £9.95 □ COMMODORE 64/128 CASSETTE £9.95 D
AM STRAD CPC CASSETTE £9.95 U AMSTRAD CPC DISC £14,95 D

Name .,,,,.,..

Address

i n m i ♦ i --- _._..

Please make cheques or postal orders to Virgin Games Ltd. Please do not post cash.
VIRGIN GAMES LTD, 2/4 VERNON YARD. PORTOBELLO ROAD, LONDON W11 2DX

A Right Royal Joystick

MICROSWITCH JOYSTICK

^METAL SHAFT
0AUTO FIRE

^12 MONTH WARRANTY

• Deluxe, robust construction. •Comfortable rugged
hand-grip, Bdirectionat control with automatic centering,

• Heavy duty base with strong stabilizing suction cups.

• Highly sensitive light touch MICRO SWITCH fire buttons.

• Economically designed control handle with indestructable

METAL SHAFT • Built in AUTO FIRE function.

Maeh I Joystick compatible with:* Sinclair 7X Spectrum ibk ahk.vshk

• Amstrad computers • Commodore 64 & VIC 20 Computers

• Commodore CI 6 & Plus 4 Computers (adaptor sold separately)

• MSX Computers • Atari 2600 & Alari 5200 Video Game Systems

• Atari Home Computers

Pfrittf mcludt VAT, Damage A o»(krf>4 OtUtn'f unimaiiy i*a«t* E l P*" f P'«*r ■ *t no am f* co n - 0»inr enquiries w*lcam«

Cni*tihpfoauieiSiM<li6l» (rem ftrjn C lie*»f tHxfMl» WH5MITH ■> Hi-gn S1 . S-tOf*[

JH^ und III quo d c m puU r ihou i

^5f

Mar/cef/ng Jfg^

CHEETAH MARKETING LTD

I WlLLOWBROOK SCIENCE PARK

CRICKHOWELL POaD.ST ME LIONS. CARDIFF

TEL CARDIFF :02221 777337 T6LE3C 497J55

fAX 0322 77940 J

ourAMDRUM!

SOIG'i TALLY RECORDED HEAL DRUM SOUNDS
SIMPLE TO USE -UP AND RUNNING IN ONLY MINUTES
A TRUE DIGITAL DRUM MACHINE
REALTIME OP. ON SCREEN PROGRAMMING
COMPLETE WITH SOFTWARE
EXTRA SOUNDS CAN BE LOADED FROM TAPE
COMPREHENSIVE MANUAL

THE MOST EXCITING PERIPHERAL EVER DEVELOPED
DYNAMIC FILING SYSTEM — STORE OVER 1000
PROGRAMMED
RHYTHMS

TAPE SVNC
FACILITY
SONGS CAN
BE SAVED
ON TAPE

POLYPHONIC

CREATIVE.
EDUCATIONAL
AND FUN

* JUST PLUGS
iN TO MOST
HI FIS

Avmi at i * (tam #J* ■^mzsim h i qb St. Stores dncLjll gp <>d
cooiputfrr shops or direct iromChesiah Marketing

Marketing

-Hit- »autt4i<»
.><:..rt>*lLL l&A v^y.C^^i.tt"'

II s -**o*«:MinT?njT nkCi *ws

FAX Q?n rrUlt

This i& the main

listing. If you typfl it in
and run it by itself it will
amply print out a giant
poster of the program — -

'isiTg. since that is
what's onscreen

Adding this line
creates one very
simple screen dtsplay
(or turning into a
poster. You could
replace It with an/
other graph ics routine,
for example one which
loads in a screen
display from a
graphics package or (it
you're dever) the tide
screen of a game.

{

10 MODE 0IFOR i=2 TO 13:
RAD ACTION": PR I NT"": NEXT

„ T °«IK

here's

POSTER MAKER

Ingenious program, this, from PETER DOEL. It produces a giant
printout of whatever you've got on the screen, using eight
she els of norma] continuous stationery. The printer uses the
computer's normal character set, so that when you look at the
printout close up you can barely make out what it is. But slick
the pages together, walk away 20 feet, then turn round and look
and... WOW!

You can change the 'contrast' in your giant picture by
altering the character s separated by commas in line 240 - each
of these characters corresponds to one of the 16 possible screen
colours.

The program starts at line 100, and ii you just run it as it is, it
will simply produce a magnified printout of the text that's on the
screen. A better idea is to add some more program lines below
line 100 to crests something interesting on screen, even if it's
just loading in a loading screen from a game.

100 UIDTH 255

115 PRINT «8,CHR*f27M "A'iCHR*'7> i

120 DIM s*U5>

130 FDR q~0 TO ISSREAU **<q>:NEXT

140 FOR 1=0 TO 480 STEP 160

150 FOR y-390 TO STEP -2

f-^0 FOR k-0 TO 15S STEP 2

180 a*=a* + s* (TESTU +

190 ME*T m

200 PRINT #Sji*

210 NEXT y

220 PRINT l»B f CHR*fl2M

230 ne:t I

240 PATA 0," ■ r *,0,M > +,%,

i|************
?***

********** ******* IIIi** n

irtufciiilfllli ***********

]\ W tl It

\\ II II 11 u

k**

***

***
. * * * *
*****
*****
*****
*****
*****
******
******

*******

*******
*******

;******'
(t******'

******£'
*******'

*******'

.*******'

********

*******

******
. * * * *
s*

SIMON

You probably remember the game in which you have to
remember a sequence of coloured lights and sends and repeat
it. This is that game. Simple, but challenging and surprisingly
addictive.

This program mimics the game very nicely indeed, giving
you. a choice of two playing speeds.

So. with your Amstrad you can copy a game that took the
Christmas market by storm ten years ago at a cost of £20!

Our thanks to T MAGEE of Marlow, Bucks.

10 MODE 0*GO5UB 2&&Z LOCATE *0, 1 , 1 : PRINT ** SIMON SAYS #"

20 CLEAR INPUTILOCATE 1*0, \ , 25: INPUT "FAST -'SLOW (F,'S) • J S*

30 IF S*='F- THEN S*250 ELSE IF S*-"^" THEN S=500 ELSE 20

40 &L-3

50 CLEAR INPUT: DIM ml^h

60 ' game

70 GOSUB 260

SB LOCATE #0,7 9 6:FRINT "L»v*l " j GL-2

90 LOCATE #0, 2, 24 ; PRINT "< Space > to start.": IF INKEY*^" THEN 90

100 GOSUB 310:' record ddvk

110 GOSUB 120: GOTO 170

120 'display mo/#5

130 FOR g=l TO gJ

149 INK ib tg) * 1.0: SOUND l,*fg>*i00

1 50 GOSUB 430IGQSUB 200
160 NEKT g: RETURN
1 70 ' p 1 py#f input
1S0 FOR g=i TO gl
190 a=VAL<INKEY*i
200 TF »<1 OR a >4 THEN 190
210 IF aOm<gi THEN 350
220 INK jatgl 1 1,0; SOUND l,m<g)#100
230 GOSUB 430:GOSUB 280

340 NEXT gi LOCATE W0, 7 % Si PRINT "CORRECT" : GOSUB 430: GOSUE 230

230 ERASE m:gJ=gI+l:GOTO 50

260 'draw screen

270 MODE 0:GOSUB 2G0iLOCATE #0, 1 ( 1 : PRINT "* SIMON SATS # B :GOTO 290

280 BORDER 0: INK 0,01 INK 1,26: INK 2,6iINK 3,24: INK 4 t l8:lNK 5, 2: MOVE 0,0,l:RETUR

290 FOR d = l TO 4: MOVE d*100,250! DHAWR ?5,0.'iRAWR 0, -75;DRAUR -75,0JDRAWR 0,73: MO

VER 10, -10:FILL d + 1

300 MOVE d* 100-20, 170! TAG: PRINT d ; ! TAGOFFJ NEX . d

310 ' record ihdwe

320 FOR r=l TO gl

330 m(r)-lNT(RND#4JM

340 ME'^T r: RETURN

350 'oopi

160 LOCATE *0 t 7, S: PRINT 'Oops! *: SOUND 1,1000

370 FOR N-l TO 1500;NEXT NiLOCATE *0. 6, 8: PRINT "It hs'. ,■

380 GOSUB 120

39B LOCATE #0, 2 , &: PRlNT'Anot h&r gofY/Nl?'

400 IF INKEYC4310-1 THEN ERASE M : GOTO 10

410 IF INKEY<4£><>~1 THEN END

420 OO TO 39 O

430 'patuse

440 FOR t=l TO S;NEXT t

450 RETURN

•&■*?«*

►W

Releasee on November Sth tor the BBC Micro,
Acom Eiecion. CofTiFnodore W/128 and
Amstrac 4W 664 4428 compute*

P3ep»Ofi 3 includes -

• A Screen Designer - devise your own puzzles for Repton

TO SOlvft

■ A Character Designer — alter any or ail of the gome

• Many New Features - poisonous fungi, time bombs, time
capsules, golden ercwfl*

e 14 Fascinating Screen* - a pr m compefHion a being riefd

lor plovers who complete an of the screens.
Avoid tne rusti - advance orders being taken now!

SOffUlftftf

imneo

ACORN SftFT

5*9eTtH«u*4 S*ii>nefiori«, Lspcslctiax reiepriDr»e.05324WASi

HiAIItM Of f Hi OAWl

GET It i rt*
WWDUIY _

._j.fli
j.h

*aH8JAtK^ - _ — .

i US

?.**

_ J.ii

795

., J.»*

T.U

.7.94
_™.7,l4

W1HTEA GAME4 7*J

WlKWtt CMCOWrTER 7.11

Oflf S Jt MfltT J.I*

TufuoiiFflrr

WH0»«.tC*WN*f1
CIMUHSO

Vie *r«iJw1FU,.„
WiCStl

HOtMCUP
F *y 3 :

AMSTRAD

ROOM Id ~JJ*

NICK CALDffSOJ>LN _>JB

KVhG FU HASTE ft 7,H

CM COMBAT _J,U

CC*t T,1 1

««K K WSiFtU T.tS

W>TCFTHSHOL«L

_7B!

V.YISITHBW _..

CAULSftOM 11

BttOL(t.„„.

CJU'lFlC- -

AJ£S MQHWAr.

fWftLIQKT. .

-7.14

-7«

.J.I*
,.7. IS

„Z*#
-.J.lS

GftAHAM Q.OQCH CFICKiT., 7.M
ipTTEflHATICWA K*RATE..„*-S»

MELTDOWN, _____7.t*

1UX HEAQAOOM 7.0*

HEAVY OH THE UAQKK .7.*!

J1 AHOU AKfc™^ — —A I *
ihOGL'N J.tl

SABOTEUR. » 7.1 S

GHSVS'k GQ&U'iS ... nl

MONOPOLY 7BS

I0lO» ___ — Ml

4i*t PMt POKHt r.ii

MOVIE , f.ll

■ LADE flUNNCn , J,f(

■ L&tKSUSTtltS— —. 7.1 1

qolo run — t.b*

IMPOSSIBLE Ml CSpH„ ._7.Bi

NEXUS 7.IJ

» ITAfitTBf K£ n J -fl*

tt!JK*i ELEVATOR T.BS

SQCSSR W 7J9

S£JV£? FOR LISTS OF NEW RELEASES AND DISK PRICES

/rinn soft

m^m

/GLASGOW G5 8BR /

WHAT!

SURELY YOU'RE NOT STILL WAITING
FOR THAT GAME TO LOAD ?

ISN'T IT ABOUT TIME YOU BOUGHT YOUR

SOFTWARE FROM AMBYTE, THE ONLY COMPANY

WHICH CAN SELL YOU GAMES SOFTWARE ON DISC

AT CASSETTE PRICES

3 HERE'S HOW IT WORKst

From Ihe lisl below you pick the games you wanl, and we put them on disc - easy isn't il? We call them custom

compilations. The advantages are clear; you benefTl from the loading speed disc games offer, so you gel more out of

your software, but you don't pay any more than if you were buying In* gam as on tap*. Not only that, many of Ihe games

wa offer wouldn't be available on disc - where else could you buy a Maslerlronic game lor £1 .99, on disc, if it isn't from

AMBYTE,

ACTlVlSiON

ACOOT
AC002
AC003
AC004
AC04S
AC0O6

Qbostbuslars
Mind shadow
Master of Ihe Lamps
Rescue on Ftadaius
Hacker

9.99*
9.99*
999*

9.99*
999*

Barry McGuioars Boning 9.9S*

GFKW1 Thing on A Spring

8.95

GR0O2

Way Of The Ttgw

9.95

GR003

Super Skriilh

8.95-

GR004

Sounder

8.95

BfUpG

Monty on Ihe Run

8.95*

ALLH3ATA

AL001 Who Dares Wms2 8,95

MASTERTRONIC

waooi Finder Keepers 1,99

MA002 Chiller 199

MA093 NofHeiraquous 1.99

MACQ4 Locor-clion 1.99

MA0D5 Soul of a Rstot 1.99

MAOOS Formula One SmJaior 1.99

MAO 37 One Man and H is D rod 1.99

MAOOS Caves ol Doom 1,99

MA009 IntoOblvfMi ' 99

MAO 10 Spell Bound 2 39

MAD 11 the Last V8 2.99

MA0 12 Kane 1 99

MA0 13 Ftadzone l <J9

MAQ14 Five a Side Foolbal 2 99

KU001 Siar Avenger

KU002 Gamma

KUOOJ Rock Raid

KUG04 Fruily Frank

KUCOS Caverns of Mars

KUGDJ ArgcNavis

K : JC03 Renegade

K'JCOS Buster Block

ELMZ Commando

E1003 Somo Jack

EL0O«t Ghosts and Goblins

PALACE

PA001
PA002

Cauldron
CatiMron II

1 MIKROGEN

MKC01 Battle of the P 'an els

995

MKC32 Three Weeks in Paradise

9.95

MKC33 Heroerte's Dummy Run

9.95

MKC34 Equinox

995

frp9jzr,mmmi^^^^mm

US001 Beachhead 2 9 95*

US502 Irrp-tssbiG Miasioc 9.915*

US003 Wrrrier Games 9,95

USOM Return lo Oi 9,95'

USK5 Bruce Lee 9.95

USO06 Goonics 9.95"

USM7 Zonro 9.95"

JS0C8 Sunlight 95'

US009 Damouslers 9.95

USOlO KunoFu 9 95

U5011 Bounl^ Bob 9.95

US012 Desert Fax 3.95

FIRESIRO

FlMi Rasputin

FIQ02 Rjnestona

FI004 Costa Capers

FcQQS Chiire-a

FI006 Thundertj rds

FI007 Wfow Pattern

FIQ08 Donl Pane

FI0O9 Subsunff

FfOlC Shorts Fuse

FKM1 The Comal Gawe,

FI012 NTia Master

FI013 Col'apss

FI014 Helichopper

FIO 15 Thrust

FTQ1G Seabase Delta

FI0*:7 The W.ld BLnch

F(0T9 Siar Firebirds

FI0I9 Ma^ey Headbanger

FIC20 Spikey Harote

P5001 Theatre Europe

PS002 Same for Midway

PS0C3 Bailie oi Bnfam

PS004 Swords and Sorcery

6.95
5 95
60S
695

€.95
6.9&
6.95
6.95

8.95
8.95

8 95

8.99
8.99

7.95
7.95
7.95
7.95
3.95
3.95
3.95
1.99
1.93
7.9S
1.99
1.99
1,99
1.99
-.99
T 99
199
1 99
1.99

9.95

9 95
9.95
995

RTANT

YOU MAY ORDER AS MAN V GAMES AS YOU UKE SO LONG AS THE

COMBINED VALUE OF TWO OF THEM EXCEEDS £15. YOU CANNOT.

FOR EXAMPLE, ORDER SEVEN MASTERTRONIC TITLES UNLESS YOU

ALSO ORDER TYrO NORMAL PRICED GAMES

CROC 1 ) Endurance

795

CROC? Jugpenau*

7»

CROC 3- Formula 1

795

CRQ04 Blade Runner

B95

1 MAFTECH

SHiTANNIA SOFTWARE

---■■. ■

COM2
CC&03

Play Vour Cards High!
Am hen

ELECTRIC DREAMS

L .f I : :■ 1

MT0D2

MTooa

MT0Q4
MT005

Zoids The Battle Beo^s 9.95 E&MI

Brian Jatts Superstar 9,95 ED002
GeoJi Capes Strong Man 6 95

•Jam Hm Sinp Pe**r a.95 MS001

Winter Sports
Spindizzy

MIRRORSOFT

WAR

S 95* WS002

Dynarnile Den

Bouldii-rdJiri

795

995
995

':'*."■

999"

ass

9 95

ORDERING {CPC 612&654 & 4$4 machines onfy)

DON'T FORGET YOU MUST SPEND ATLEAST£?50NTWOGAMES-

Pleasecton'lorderany games ma*ed*ithastar(")unle3Syouhave

lelephc*»ad us (on the number below) lo make sure they are available

The se ga me s we re not a^a ilable ai th e i ime cf ou r go: ng io press but

s^uW fi^ when you read ih s - but don't lake a chance- phone us,

ol 'ne'wise yc u r order rnig ht get delayed

You cai order as many games as you i.ke, wse a separate piece ol paper if

you prefer, but dent forgot any of the dejtaftt ashsrl lor by 1 he lorm

Phone 0277 229664

Code Number

Title

Total Order Value

Price

Name,

Customer Coda {if you have
one please use it, il saves time)

Address,

Postcode.

Cheques ar>d postal ordors shoukf be m^dc payable lo AMBYTE, A I
orders should be posted to AMBYTE, 200 North Service Rd,
Brentwood, Essex CM 14 4SG

88 AMSTRAD ACTION NOVEMBER 1986

COMPETITION

BLASTER

GHettoblasters, Walkmans,
watches and t-shirts are all up for
grabs in our massive Mastertvonic
competition

Still wearing flared trousers? Don't know what colour shoelaces
ase 'in' this year? Does breakdancing simply mean six months
in a plaster cast? Have your ears never suffered from a rap
attack?

Then this competition is specially for you - win one
of the fabulous prizes on offer and you'll have more
street cred than a Radio One DJ in a Ferrari.

Master! ronic is the king of budget software
Not content with practically giving away their
games, the nice people there also want to give
you a whole host of super prizes that will put the
sparkle back into your image.

All you have to do is loosen up your fingers and
brain and produce a worthy work of art. The competition
is split into two sections, under- 16s and over- 16s, but the
prizes are the same for both.

The two winners will get an ear-blasting Sa:3ho Cheltoblda-
ler complete with radio, cassette deck and detachable twin
speakers your ears and the neighbourhood won't be the same
again.

Two second prises of a Sony Walkman will also bring music
into your life, while the two third prises of a digital watch will
mean you're always on time for that speaaj rendezvous. Five
runners- up in each age group will also get a Mastertromc t-shirt
and be the coolest-dressed player in the street.

WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO

Txie under- 16s can let their imagination run riot because we
want you to draw the weirdest creature, monster, alien or beast
that you can think of. You can do it in pen, paint, or anything you
like even Art Studio. What we'll be looking for won't just be
artistic skill, but plenty of imagination and humour as well.

The over-16s can exercise their razor-sharp wits by pro-
ducing a cartoon about Mastertronic. You can make it about the
company, a particular game, the new joystick, or anything else
1o do with budget games - and again we'll be looking for
humour and imagination as well as good drawing.

The winners will get an additional bonus: Mastertronic will
frame the winners' entries and present them with a scroll to
mark their achievement. With generosity like that what are you
waiting fort Get diawuig!

CLOSING DATE

Entries should be here by Monday 17th November. Use A4-size
paper or smaller. Post to: Master Blaster competition,
Am* trad Action, The Old Bain. Somtrlon, Somerset, TA11
HE

Everyone! a winner

AMSTRAD ACTION NOVEMBER 1986

0/V6 WAY LIFTS.

TGOO WAY U^TS,

1 m

! M

^1 —

T G

l G I T l Gp

fa o/veu>Av D0O£,

LGCK6D DOORS.

DROP

T*ee/v

ec/v.

G T

mmm

T gI^G^^T G|
^ ♦ 1

£jpfi!

buy your

SOFTWARE

FROM YOUR

ARMCHAIR!

— — f ^ i miiiii it ii i hi n

By the time you've reached this part of the magazine,
chances are you'd love to get yovr hands on Some of
the software we've reviewed. And that's just what you
can da. Our mail order service allows you to order
virtually ANY piece of software for the Amstrad
micros reviewed in the magazine* Whet's more you
can gave yourself a good sum of money on shop
prices AND qualify for great free gifts.

Hey, it's a wonderful way to buy yovr software!

SUPER FREE GIFTS!

Here's the great range of Software that you can get FREE with your
order - most of them normally costing over EB, wifeh some worth
nearly £50? If your tote! order is over £1 & you will receive one free
title, but if it's over £30 you will receive TWO. Use the order form to
mark your preferences and to delete any titles you already have, but
we cannot guarantee which you will receive, &o be prepared for a
MYSTERY GIFT!

KUNG FU/HUMSU 1

Two gjMt Octifi 34mes on one tape,
as given away with &\<t Ctai&w "S5
ehhk of AA. U you miuivd il lhc«, you

irauid gOI it now

IHEGOVENANr ■ OEMOS
A full version at ifm AA-Raved PSE
game on lap*, together *iih dewofl
of four other PSS mles, and instruc-
tions for trarsffcrruig 17m? Ccurerianr
10 disc. As featured on the potet of
out Mny jsuufr

CASSETTX ONLY

Herbert '$ Dua\ my ffl/fl
fVerya/ie'jfl WsJJjf

AmejiftMi Football
Elactta Freddy
Hunter Kilter

Laser warp

SplAl

Classic Advf-mtite

Wriggler

PyjAitiAidJiij

Spatwerman

Hunchback

Master Chess

Roland goes Digging

Message from Andromeda

Space! Hawk

Winter Games

Dooir.sd.sy Blo«S

Get Dexter

Big League Soceet

Alex Higgins World Pool

Marsport

Aii&n Highway

Swecvo 's World

Ttd,

Highway EncounUn
Batman

i VOUCHER

t»r inrTimsuJirl IromfS B-
I m*i vm rwtlttl OH »r d»r !

VOUCHER

Fur uh m|»i oriin 1rum El I.M
F1I.H

HOW ORDERS ARE DEALT
WITH

Amstrad Action Mail Order It run
h*r« hi Sorftetton bf the snper.
aiHEient SUE TAYLOR, the woman
who 50I* more mail In > day than
moot people 5*t each yeaif

Utiles* YD"' order includes
prHfcutii which our suppliers
cannot <j*t hold of for gemc re-
ason, Stlt despatches All packages
by fUwt etnas, mail within two Or
th»e working days of receiving-
the orders. Therefore, you can
jinrmilly expect 19 reeelv* yaur
partial about a week 10 10 day*
aft** ordering,

If it's delayed bay end that
chuxeta M* yon*v^ ordered * bun
which hasn't yet been relcafred o*
in temporarily unavailable. In
which case a phone call fxem yon
WONT speed Ihinav up. (la fact
III* revere* - phone coils are vary
lime-cons uming.) It a long delay
were HkeJy w*'d let y on know.

PLEASE BEAR ihi MIND

1. The laet that * prOQTara 1* rt-
newod in the raafuib* dt-*s not

futulH it* availability tinea
kottib software it reviewed
BEFORE it has actually be*n
released.

2. We are happy to refund your
order at any time op to. the de-
spatch of the good*. Bat be causer of
the possibility of copying aofl-
wh»p no refhnd or exchange to in
alternative piece of Software can
hw glif 11 after Ihey have b*»D de-
•patched. Software which doe* not

lead may he re I timed for a Te-
placement cassette or disx con-
taining the um i> software either to
fU or directly K» the loftware

hottae concerned

3. We Dry to be as securjie as we
can with detail » of put*. nmpiB-
bllity and die* availability, bat
cannot accept liability for any

mm thai creep in.

Reedert in the Republic of
IRELAND can order any of these
good* at the same rates as British
leader* provided thai payment is
made in pounds Sterling. If you
wish to pay in Irian pounds you
most add a IR3.30 suTchjnj'; IN
ADDITION to allowing for the
entrant exchange rale - that's
what It coals at lo pay in yonr
cheqnes or postal orders

Readers eliewheie in

EUROPE must add £1 per software
item to She coal of their order.
Payment must he in pound*
Sterling,

Sending torn dTus D3tymer.t 10: A A Malt Order h i a Plnewood Drive, Sejimwlon, Somerset;! All &JP

MAIL ORDER FORM

Name..................... Telaphoneno-[if poss).

Address,....,- ... ............

Machine owned: "1 C PC 464 LI C PC 664 L CPC61 26

.Post cede.

Erd *r the pragnsms you *tah

toardtf rt tto igm bafew. t.'n^rfftlCE' you rmJtt *';!*■ lh» Mlntl!! p'«* If yew want mans dufl. fw* hams,
you s hgvM Sallham en a. secern* pi«* a' paper.

SOFTWARE TITLE

SOFTWARE HOUSE DISC/CAS5

PRICE

PRE-DISCO

J m TOTAL

Tk* wi» ol tit* f eaowrq accord*?) to yet* PftEfJKCOU NT TOTAL

O Undfl'ES 1 £5 3.90. 1 endose a50a discount mucher. [ ] CiO-14 r S9, lendlosea£ J KE&D&untVOiyCfwf.

O £15-19.39. 1 enclose a C1 v*ouchef3ncclama free gift. r^E2(>20,MJ enclose a Ovctjchef ar-de'aima ffeeg'1.

] £30-40.99', lenctose a t2 voucher sneciaim twofjifts L JOrtr£S0, I er,close a C5 voucher and claim two gifts

TOTAL PAYABLE FOR MAILORDER i-PRE-DtSCOUMTTOTALminuSdisoou^ |C
Aeo Am lau! ia th« uihuii p< T »ol# «n «<y spaut «4f«f i n«sr*4 on reverse side.

!*"*•*» **« *i» In! tha gvn«* y«j elrsedy hsv*. and are** mt <n«s youKouHpuijaibrly la* si your tr*« Qph(s-).

Cuneta'Cov*-*-*- D«jv!f» Omni ■ M«f, s . rtsrtyijTJ , Curing Hjl ' t mjrytxw's s WsJf - ATei^^ F« tnd • Rrttfy - H J»4f KJ ^ * L«+>>i-«(» • Sti*
CfM**f tag ■ CJwk «o»«iUr» ■ Wr.pQ* ■ <\|hwjtiS - Sp»>WnW - WLncrilaad.- Htsw Of»6I ■ fUxn't 3o«! Hg9r 9 .Sndr«nMit, S^sea Ka*k
WirK»- Oa-rin ■ Dwrrwry AM* ■ Ciai QeHK • suent > Alti rHofl 18* Marsper ■ *J*n Higrwriy ■ SiMtn'i Warlcl > Tt_L ■ H gmray EwSunW ■ Bsfrrtfn

You've read the reviews - now get your Arnold singing!

Save £7!

ADVANCED MUSIC SYSTEM

This disk could Ik 7011x3 for just £22.95

Or If you haven't got a disk drive... »

Save £3.50! ^

MUSIC SYSTEM

On cassette at just £12.45

Our seven-page special feature shows you what your
CPC can da in the line of music: now you can put if
into Action and save yourself pounds with this
Amstrad Action offer.

The original Music System caused quite a stir
when Pete Connor reviewed it in our March issue,
describing it as 'a superbly executed package ... with a
thorough and very clear manual'. Since then it has
become the standard against which all music pack-
ages have been fudged, and largely found wanting.
The Advanced Music System extends the facilites still
further, and 'the main section ... looks every bit as
good now as it did six months ago 1 .

The package is very easy to use, with pop-down
menus and windows. You can create three separate
voice* at a time- As you play, the tone appears in full
musical notation on the screen. The Advanced version
includes a printout module for printing six voices of
music on proper staves on paper, and a linker module
that allows larger pieces to be played.
% We are offering you The Advanced Music System
on disk far £7 less than you will find it in the shops,
and if you haven't got a disk drive then wo ore
knocking £3.50 off the cheaper Music System on
cassette. If you are planning to buy a disk drive soon,
then you can still benefit as Rainbird will upgrade you
to Advanced for El 4.

Whatever you've got, this is the best way to get
into music and save money at the same time!

Save chaos!

MAGAZINE

O nly £3.95

You asked Tor liicm and now you ve ■
them No more piles of Amsdad Act*
cluttering up your living room carpet a
getting, sob, battered io pieces in the p:
cew, Instead a superb, custom-built bine
specially designed to take 12 copies of -
And preserve ihem in pristine condition
prosperity (and easy future reference)

( Save £3!

] 3D STARSTRIKE II

Yours for just £6.95 on cassette

Just a glance at this month's front comer
shows you how much we rate this game. ft
offers stunning 3D space combat in a style
reminiscent of Elite, but dioae vector
graphics are filled w with glorious colour!
The aim of the game m to break through the
enemy's defences, destroy the central re-
actor, and escape fast But there are a
variety of planets, each with ever more
powerful and varied defences, each of
which have to be destroyed.

The defence of the galaxy is in your
hands, At £9-95 this gome merited Master-
game - at £6,9S it could be yours.

SPECIAL OFFER FORM

Fill in your name, address and machine type on Ihe reverse of Ibis form. Then place a tick next to those Jlems

you wish to order.

1. NEXUS 128

□ Just £12.95 on Disc

2.ADVANCED
MUSIC SYSTEM
_ £22.95 on Disc
3. MUSIC SYSTEM

□ £12.45 On Cassette

4.3DStarstrikell

□ Cass £6.95

Disc £10,95

5. Trio

J £7.95 on Cassette

□ £12.95 on disk

6. Powerplay

D Just £6.95 on Cassette

7. Magazine binders

□ £3,95

8. Subscription

□ 12 months £16,50

(UK rates only - write ter quotation
for overseas rales)

TOTAL NUMBER OF ITEMS TICKED

TOTAL AMOUNT PAYABLE ON SPECIAL OFFERS

9. Back issues
Numbers £1,35

□ Number4£1,85

□ Numbers £1-35

□ Number 8 £1.85
Number 9 £1.35

□ Number 10 £1.35
D Number 11 £1.35

□ Number 12 £1.35

(Those at£1 .85 incije'e a cover
mounted cassette cor la rung superb
gama software)

Yes - 1 would tike Issue
Fou r for only 75p

(only with other orders from
these pages)

PLEASE NOTE

Those offers ate separate from tba
tact or ww mail-order -scheme. Yau
crawl use sfce voue'fiers on ike mail-
order page 10 obtain further dis-
count* and free gifts - we've aJreedy
knocked oft the mo«! vre cari! Ka»
ever. iT yo/s preSet. you may ordw
any of ihfl item* on tfcij page si fl*stt
KOEfcUU. FULL F8JCE ilnoush Ae
eT&rurr rtiaii-ordei scheme on th*
pi*tnous page. Yon. can then WW %ha
*atav«nl vosuciier and. il the prSSBt It
.e*oi £13, ciaim a fie* gift, fTte* Mrflkl
.mai& sense if yew. are eftterffiq |
Other tfoodf »t the aair.e iiaia.

I enclose a cheque or postal order for this amoul. plus the total payabls for mail order on the reverse of this

form. The payment is made out to FUTURE PUBLISHING LTD.

These binders look every bit as good
as the magazine, and include the name
'Amstrad Action' embossed In blocked
Newvap Gold 011 the spine. Individual
magazines are held in place by being
slotted behind one of 12 wires

Loyal readers, don't delay. Request
your binder right away!

Save £3!

POWERPLAY

Tours On cassette for just £6.95

AA-Raved in this issue with a rating of 88% ,
Powexplay is a game with a difference. And
if you've ever played Trivial Pursuit - this
is Trivial Pursuit with a difference tool

Like the board game, Powsiplay re-
quires you to answer awkward questions in
order to progress. The game comes with
over 2,000 questions built in, and new
questions can be added with its question
compiler. However, unlike the board
game, there is a whole new level oi
strategy involved.

Play is set on Mount Olympus, and each
of the four players plays a Greek deity.
Each player has four warriors moving
around a grid ot colour squares; the colour
of the square determines the category of
the question. Players can challenge other
players in their bid to destroy the other
teams.

It is a great game al £3.95- At £6.95 it
should be in your collection!

NEXUS 1 28

EXPANDED VERSION FOR YOUR CPC61 28

Only £12.95 on disk!

We are offering you the chance to buy this
September AA Rave, especially expanded
for the S128 machine, at a special low price.
You won't find this version in the shops, or
in any other magazine - it is available only
through Amstr&d Action.

Nexus, from a new software company
of thfi same name, is set in the headquarters
of a powerful drugs baron based in'
Colombia. He has captured a friend of
yours, and your mission is to rescue him
and break the drugs ring. You are helped
by members of N.E.X.US-. an undercover
operation working to bust it from inside. To
break the ring you have to find the answer
to a number of questions posed at the start
of the game.

The Ordinary version Of the game, as

EXCLUSIVE!

Available only
through AM

available in the shops, has eight levels -
this version has a full ten. The original
version poses you 3S questions - this ver-
sion asks you to solve 421 It is bigger, better
a:id cheaper from us!

Half Price!

Special offer for readers faking advantage of these pages:

ISSUE 4 - with OCEAN
cassette

Only 75p If you order any other item from these two pages!

The 1 16-page Christmas issue of
Amstmd Action, with Kung Fu and
Number One from Ocean on a cover
cassette, retailed for £1 .50 and as
a back issue normally costs £1 .85.
You can have a copy and halve the
original price if you take up any of
this month's Special Offers.

The cassette is arguabfy the
best gift ever stuck to a magazine
cover and up to the standard you

would pay pounds for over Ihe
counter. Kung Fu has superb
animation and a two- pi ay or option;
/VumberOrteis an addictive rollerball
game with super-fast 3D graphics.

And the issue itself isn't bad
either, with our usual reviews and
news, a look inside fine doors of
Ocean, and plenty of maps and
game-pokes. Superb value at £1 .50,
and it could be yours for 75pM

SUBSCRIBE!

Ensure that you get the nexl 12
copies of Amsirad Action with
the minimum of fuss. £16-30 will
make sure that every issue
materialises on your doormat
without you having 10 bl\ a fin-
ger.

Save E2!

TRIO:

Sam Goes Shopping
Table Test
Computer Snap!

Yours for fust £7.95 on cassette, or E12.95 on disk

If youVe been looking for software
to get Arnold educating your tots,
try Trio, three programs aimed at
making learning fun for kids. When
we first saw this software we were
so impressed that we helped the
authors find a suitable publisher,
and now we can bring it to you at
this special price.

Trio is the first foray No
educational seas by Piranha, a

'small but lethal' software team
wilhin Macmillan, which is one of
Britain's most respected names in
the world of books.

The three programs in the set
are Sam Goes Shopping (a challenge
1o even adult memories). Tables
Tesfand Computer Snap! (with no
cards for parents to have to clear
up afterwards). It is great fun for
kids of ail ages!

THE ALL-IN-ONE ACTION FORM

This form has been created by the Save-Your-AA-From-Being-Overhacked-Department
You can use it to register your votes for Games and Serious Software, or to send in your

Type-ins, without losing any news or reviews.

GAME CHART VOTING FORM

I would like to vote for the following games:

PLEASE NOTE

¥ou have a TOTAL o( tO votes tor each chart to attecale

b»tw«n u p lo five prog rams - *g ( yau can give all 1 1

one program or spl It them say 4*2+2+1 +1.

GAME

SOFTWARE HOUSE

VOTE ALLOCATION

SERIOUS SOFTWARE V

/ would like to vote for the following pat
PROGRAM

OTING FORM

:kages:

SOFTWARE HOUSE

VOTE ALLOCATION

wp&m

You can help us cut at AA, and give your type-ins a far better chance of being published, by filling
out this form and wrapping it around your cassette with a rubber band. It would also be an idea if
you send it in a jiffy bag as an awful lot of cassettes arrive here damaged.

Name .„„,.....,.„,.....,„.., „„,... ,.„„„....

Address

Postcode.

TITLE.

DESCRIPTION:

! hereby declare that the program on the attached tape i$ ail my own work, and that it has not been
sent to any other publication, nor been published in any form, or submitted to a software house
for consideration as part of a commercial package.

Signed - Date,

* (*.)

Manhattan: I986>.fn a vast underground garzgeb&rit?
Th& huge cavern echoes with th&sound of t i.-m-hinn steel.

en, two tn^n are looted In mortal combat.
Thehuge cavern echoes wfth the sound nf i Lushing steel, for although tAt^'ls^W &Oth centurv t one 6omt>atant wi^Ms an ancient
murai sword, the others i>rciad^woni/j'hQ duet r& deadly tamest, ending anly when the foseris dmcapit&UHt. For the victor, howfiwr.

.4ti»(?"lyortfl rnoneeortquest/n J dram** heihss been Mi/frpg for 4£Qyc?&*5.
A unique brt>t*</ofnwn fated to duet down t/ic <7£6s to a distant time called the Gathering willhutttt* For tne Prizo—
powar Jjpyrtrtd ivno^inbtjon. The distant timci :im *. ThcpJaee, r5tew Vbrk. ^^

HlghSaridiSf Productions Limited MCflfli.KXXVI. All Rights Reserved. TM -Trademark uwnwi by THORN EMI Screen Entertainment Ltd.
.mil usi'ii by Oman Software Ltd,, und^r authorisation. Movi^ and Media Marketing Ltd.. U censing Agents.

COMMODORE

£a95

AMSTRAD

OCEAN SOFTWARE 6 CENTRAL STREET MANCHESTER MZ5NSTEL;06l 332 6633 TELEX 669977 OCEA

USG

AM5TRAD .

Frte»£

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GEMINI BUSINESS & ACCOUNTS

&t T «BA$C;464.«44|}4-DiSC *i.»S

sMi>Hn.DT<4M*«4ei}«i[N5c: ij.si

BEPW*C(ht*A*.+fcl-*lJ*HJiS< ISM

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COMPLETE OFFICE SUITE

win office n ittj.'tw&iyaniASEi u.95,

HIM OFFCEui4M.*A*'6)7i)0lSC 1I.4S

PRINTERS

SFl*flSPl^^f:KPBl?«TFItreiLAiMSTB*c WO MS

JUifACH incknlrVB.T, Cjrr EJrtr*
Scrhtaie orders idd E I 90 Pi P
HanJuiutiMBrnddEJ.OOpffitw***

EXPRESS REPAJRS!

Fairir> Atmttad? .. , . Sendpst the keyboard. DO NOT send The monitor, uniess
trie monitor js a!so DEAD' (To make &ure monitor i's ££4D, smrcri on monitor in
darkened room, fwn up twjfflineM to mArimum and attar 5 mw?u?*5 siwfcrt off.
ttyan get a: bight spot refxeding, then monitor is O.K. (not D€AQ)}. Pteasesend
a* items, \*eli packed by 'Compensation Fee Paid' - Post, delate from your P.O.

AMSrRMDftlP.tiRS
BETWEEN £14 Mtd £55

BBC REPAIRS
BETWEEN £14arri£45

SPECTRUM REPAIRS

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ADVERTISERS' INDEX

A.G.F „ 93

Ocean „ „ _.„..12,81,97,OBC

Arnbyte__._. 88

Piranha. . ... . JS5

Arcana mTTT1 ^ M , L M

Pride UtiJilies .40

Ariola*of1 — AfiT

RflitvbW „,.„ ...-.-..10-11

School Softwartx- „,^8

Otjmaik.^ ,.„„„ J3

Screens Micro.- JO

ShekhansL..,...-^.ii..<«<t30

Evesham Mk:ros,„ „A4

Sirwi Softwar»...-..-„^8

Firebird ,„ ..,«.«„.... JBC

SottinsiqhL J8

Gargoyle. ... ...„._.._ ._ ....23

Superior Software...... ,S6

Goldmark SyaLema 40

US Gold ...»JFC t 30, E2

Martech „„-... ....^0,78

TlrQI FTibi-iii riiriikliliilMtlHIItlrVV

M jmorsoft 17

98 AMSTRAD ACTION NOVEMBER 1986

HEARTLAND

1£S 01-379 6755
01 -240 9134

NATIONAL 44-1-379 6755
T^L W4HK COMjMODORE64/12&^AMSTRAD/SCHNriDrK

COMPUTER GRAPHICS LTD.

/&•

'Ik

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SPECTR

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£7.9

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COMMODO

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. you haven't all
jn you're in for a rea/ surprise S
g Mag Max to load it into your micro.
Max could be a mean machine if you've <
htm together. Build hirp up and r
you'll need it! -■ believe it!

>t what it takes to put

-power increases -

Irruuin

MLancheste

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